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HOUGHTON,  MIFFI.IN  &  COMPANY, 
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SOCIAL    SALVATION 


BY 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

(STfte  fflitacrpibe  press,  Cambridge 

1902 


COPYRIGHT,  1902,  BY  WASHINGTON  GLADDEN 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED. 


Published  April,  ityiz. 


o 


OH: 


PREFACE 

The  following  lectures   have  been  prepared 
for  delivery,  in  March,  1902,  before  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Divinity  School  of  Yale  University, 
upon  the   Lyman   Beecher    Foundation.     This 
§?    preface  is  written  before  the  date  of  their  deliv- 
er    ery,  but  if  no  accidents  shall  occur,  what  is  here 
■     printed  will  have  been  spoken  before  it  is  pub- 
lished. 
5  Fifteen  years  ago  last  month  I  had  the  honor 

5  of  speaking  in  the  same  place  upon  the  same 
o  foundation.  That  course  of  lectures  upon  the 
^  relation  of  the  pulpit  to  the  social  questions  of  the 
<  day  was  afterwards  printed  under  the  title, 
g  "Tools  and  the  Man:  Property  and  Industry 
under  the  Christian  Law."  In  the  present 
P  course  economic  questions  have  therefore  been 
passed  by,  and  attention  has  been  drawn  to 
other  problems  with  which  the  Christian  pulpit 
has  need  to  concern  itself.     That  the  Christian 

^.o^c  *3  %J  -3 


iv  PREFACE 

pulpit  recognizes  this  need  I  have  some  means 
of  knowing,  for  scarcely  a  clay  passes  that  does 
not  bring  me  letters  from  ministers  of  the  gospel 
asking  for  suggestions  and  helps  in  the  study  of 
some  of  the  questions  with  which  these  lectures 
deal.  It  is  quite  impossible  for  me  to  answer 
these  inquiries,  but  I  hope  that  this  volume  may 
afford  some  assistance  to  those  who  seek  such 
direction. 

The  lectures  are  addressed  to  men  who  are 
preparing  for  the  ministry,  but  the  truth  pre- 
sented is  not  for  ministers  alone.  The  whole 
discussion  concerns  laymen  as  deeply  as  minis- 
ters ;  the  subjects  discussed  bring  home  to  every 
citizen  his  responsibilities.  Ministers  are  not 
in  this  book  considered  as  possessing  any  priestly 
character;  they  are  spoken  to  as  men  who  by 
their  intelligence  and  their  social  position  ought 
to  be  leaders  of  public  opinion;  the  remedies 
for  social  ills  here  suggested  are  not  ecclesiastical 
remedies,  they  are  such  as  require  the  coopera- 
tion of  all  men  of  good-will  in  every  community. 
And  yet  I  hope  that  those  who  read  the  book 
will  be  able  to  recognize  the  significance  of  its 
title.     If  Society  were  articulate,  its  cry  would 


PREFACE  v 

be,  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  That  is 
the  social  question  which  this  volume  tries  to 
answer.  How  incomplete  and  fragmentary  the 
answer  is,  no  one  knows  so  well  as  I:  but  it  is 
such  as  I  have,  and  I  give  it  in  the  hope  that  its 
broken  lights  may  lead  some  who  read  it  into 
larger  vision. 

WASHINGTON  GLADDEN. 

First  Congregational  Church, 
Columbus,  O.,  February  25,  1902. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


CHAP. 

I.  Religion  and  the  Social  Question        .       .  1 

II.  The  Care  of  the  Poor          ....  32 

III.  The  State  and  the  Unemployed    ...  61 

IV.  Our  Brothers  in  Bonds         ....  94 
V.  Social  Vices 135 

VI.  Public  Education 1*72 

VII.  The  Redemption  of  the  City  ....  203 

References  and  Suggestions       .        .        .  237 


SOCIAL  SALVATION 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION 

We  are  to  consider,  in  the  hours  which  we 
shall  spend  together,  the  relation  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  and  the  Christian  Pastor  to  Cur- 
rent Social  Questions.  Of  what  are  commonly 
known  as  the  Social  Questions,  the  one  which 
stands  foremost  is  the  industrial  question,  the 
question  of  the  organization  and  remuneration 
of  labor;  the  relation  of  employers  and  em- 
ployees ;  the  problem  of  the  distribution  of  the 
product  of  industry.  To  that  question  I  gave 
consideration  in  a  course  of  lectures  delivered 
several  years  ago,  in  this  place.  I  shall  not, 
therefore,  dwell  upon  it  at  this  time.  To  ignore 
it  will  not,  indeed,  be  possible ;  for  all  the  other 
questions  which  we  are  to  consider  have  their 
economic  aspects,  and  cannot  be  adequately 
treated  without  constant  reference  to  industrial 
conditions.    " The  question  of  food  and  clothes," 


2  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

s.i\ -C!i  i;lcs  Fergufon,  ''is  inextricably   bound 

uj>  with  the  interests  of  arts  and  letters,  and  all 
tog&Siei  iiiv  meshed  and  woven  in  with  the 
grand  eternal  issues,  so  that  we  cannot  make  an 
inch  of  progress  in  the  settlement  of  economic 
questions  save  as  we  make  progress  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  other  questions."  1  The  converse 
is  equally  true.  The  wage-worker's  problems 
will,  however,  be  before  us,  in  these  studies, 
only  incidentally;  we  shall  be  chiefly  occupied 
with  other  phases  of  the  manifold  inquiry  with 
which  society,  in  this  day  and  generation,  is 
exploring  its  own  doings  and  misdoings. 

The  fact  that  there  is  a  social  question  is  a 
hopeful  symptom.  It  springs  from  some  dim 
recognition  of  the  solidarity  of  society,  —  of  the 
fact  that  we  are  members  one  of  another;  that 
the  ills  which  the  community  is  heir  to  are  mat- 
ters of  concern  to  all  of  us.  It  is  not  alone  the 
sociologists  and  the  philanthropists  who  are 
aware  of  the  existence  of  social  questions;  in  a 
more  or  less  definite  way  we  are  all  thinking 
about  them. 

It  is  involved  in  what  I  have  said  that  the 
social  question,  as  a  whole,  presents  itself  to  our 
minds  as  a  pathological  study.     If  we  are  not 

1  TJte  Religion  of  Democracy .  p.  66.  Tho  correlation  of  the 
social  questions  is  admirably  Bhown  in  the  last  chapter  of  Pro- 
fessor F.  G.  Peabody's  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Qiustion. 


RELIGION  AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION     3 

quite  as  hopeless  as  Isaiah  was  when  he  cried 
out  to  Jerusalem :  "  The  whole  head  is  sick,  and 
the  whole  heart  faint ;  from  the  sole  of  the  foot 
even  unto  the  head  there  is  no  soundness  in  it; 
but  wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrefying  sores," 
—  we  are  still  painfully  conscious  that  there  are 
morbid  conditions  in  modern  society,  tenden- 
cies to  decay,  ills  that  call  for  healing.  The 
shapes  that  rise  up  before  us  in  these  searchings 
of  heart  are  poverty  and  pauperism,  idleness 
and  intemperance,  bankrupt  households  and 
neglected  children,  groups  of  incapables  and 
ne'er-do-weels  and  criminals,  —  the  multitudes 
on  whom  Jesus  looked  with  compassion  because 
they  were  distressed  and  scattered  as  sheep  not 
having  a  shepherd.  It  is  through  his  eyes  that 
we  are  looking  upon  the  suffering  and  misery 
that  surround  us;  the  social  question  springs 
from  the  compassion  with  which  he  has  touched 
our  hearts. 

It  is  true  that  the  pathological  study  of  so- 
ciety leads  directly  to  questions  of  social  organ- 
ization; in  the  face  of  so  much  poverty  and 
suffering  we  are  constrained  to  ask  ourselves 
whether  something  is  not  wrong  with  the  social 
framework ;  whether  reconstruction  rather  than 
repairs  is  not  the  thing  most  needed.  "The 
social  question  of  the  present  age,"  says  Profes- 
sor Peabody,  "is  not  a  question  of  mitigating 


4  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

the  evils  of  the  existing  order,  but  a  question 
whether  the  existing  order  itself  shall  last.  It 
is  not  so  much  a  problem  of  social  amelioration 
which  occupies  the  modern  mind  as  a  problem 
of  social  transformation  and  reconstruction. 
The  new  social  interest  is  concerned  not  so 
much  with  effects  as  with  causes;  not  with  so- 
cial therapeutics,  but  with  social  bacteriology 
and  hygiene.  Indeed,  in  this  frame  of  mind 
there  is  often  to  be  discerned  a  violent  reaction 
from  traditional  ways  of  charity  and  from  mod- 
erate measures  of  reform.  The  time  is  wasted, 
it  is  urged,  which  is  given  to  lopping  off  occa- 
sional branches  of  social  wrong,  when  the  real 
social  question  cuts  at  the  root  from  which  these 
branches  grow.  Instead  of  inquiring  what  ways 
of  charity  are  wise,  let  us  rather,  it  is  urged, 
inquire  why  charity  is  necessary,  and  why  pov- 
erty exists."1  In  these  words  Professor  Pea- 
body  is  stating  the  social  question  not  as  it  pre- 
sents itself  to  his  own  mind,  but  rather  as  it 
takes  form  in  the  minds  of  the  more  radical  re- 
formers. We  may  not  take  their  point  of  view, 
but  we  must  admit  that  the  question  they  raise 
is  pertinent.  There  are  reasons  for  believing 
that  the  social  ailments  are  constitutional,  rather 
than  local,  and  that  the  remedies  must  reach 
the  seat  of  the  disorder.     But   if  the   analogy 

1  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  p.  5. 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION    5 

which  we  have  been  following  is  of  any  sig- 
nificance, —  if  society  possesses  any  of  the 
characteristics  of  an  organism,  —  the  remedies 
which  are  truly  radical  will  not  be  those  which 
are  generally  contemplated  by  reformers  who 
call  themselves  radicals.  If  a  house  has  fallen 
into  decay,  the  best  thing  to  do  may  be  to  pull 
it  down  and  build  on  a  new  foundation,  with 
all  the  modern  improvements.  Reconstruction, 
rather  than  repair,  may,  in  that  case,  be  the 
best  policy.  But  if  a  tree  is  pining,  it  cannot 
be  treated  after  that  fashion.  It  may  need 
pruning,  and  its  life  may  need  invigorating  by 
the  addition  of  fertilizers  to  the  soil  in  which  it 
grows:  it  cannot  be  pulled  down  and  rebuilt. 
The  same  is  true  of  a  human  body.  If  there  is 
serious  disease,  the  physician  seeks  to  allay 
suffering  and  to  hold  in  check  the  morbid  tend- 
encies while  he  reinforces  at  every  point  the 
vital  energies.  When  the  cure  is  complete,  it  is 
evident  that  no  reconstruction  has  taken  place ; 
it  is  the  same  body,  with  the  same  parts  and 
organs,  fulfilling  the  same  functions  as  before. 

I  am  aware  that  analogies  are  not  proofs,  and 
I  would  not  put  too  much  weight  on  this  one; 
but  it  is  certain  that  society  much  more  nearly 
resembles  a  tree  or  a  human  body  than  a  house ; 
it  is  a  living  thing;  it  has  some  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  a  physical  organism,  and  we  shall 


G  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

come  nearer  to  the  truth  it'  we  apply  to  it  the 
laws  of  biology  than  if  we  try  to  deal  with  it 
under  the  laws  of  mechanics.  That  is  a  truth 
which  all  radical  reformers  should  consider  well. 
Society  cannot  he  pulled  down  and  rebuilt  suc- 
cessfully. It  must  keep  on  growing  out  of  its 
own  roots;  its  vital  processes  can  never  be  sus- 
pended. Morbid  tendencies  may  be  arrested; 
its  life  may  be  replenished;  possibly  its  vital 
forces  may  be  directed  into  new  channels,  but 
the  structural  principles  must  remain  essentially 
the  same.  The  one  lesson  that  the  social  re- 
former as  well  as  the  theological  reformer  needs 
to  learn  is  the  lesson  of  evolution. 

We  shall  get  a  little  nearer  to  the  heart  of 
the  social  question  when  we  begin  to  ask  whether 
the  answer  to  it  is  to  come  through  the  indi- 
vidual, or  through  the  social  organization. 
Where  shall  the  remedy  be  applied?  Is  it  the 
men  and  women  who  most  need  healing  and 
restoration,  or  is  it  the  society  in  which  they 
live?  The  theory  of  Orthodox  Protestantism 
puts  the  whole  emphasis  upon  the  individual; 
it  has  no  hope  of  saving  society  except  as  it 
saves  the  souls  of  individual  men  and  women. 
Unquestionably  its  tendency  has  been  to  over- 
state the  importance  of  the  individual  and  to 
ignore  the  "organic  filaments"  by  which  a  man 
is  vitally  bound  to  the  community.     It  is  the 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION    7 

belief  of  most  preachers  of  the  gospel  that  if 
all  the  men  and  women  in  the  community  were 
"soundly  converted,"  there  would  be  no  social 
guestion.  If  the  term  "soundly  converted"  be 
made  broad  enough,  that  may  be  true.  But  the 
truth  must  be  confessed  that  multitudes  of  those 
who  answer  all  the  requirements  of  the  ordinary 
evangelical  experience ;  who  are  known  in  their 
churches  as  men  and  women  of  deep  and  de- 
voted piety;  who,  in  the  charitable  judgment 
of  their  neighbors,  have  sincerely  repented  of 
their  sins,  and  accepted  of  the  divine  forgive- 
ness, and  consecrated  their  lives  to  the  service 
of  God,  and  are  prayerfully  endeavoring  to  do 
his  will,  —  multitudes,  I  say,  of  such  as  these 
are  so  far  from  helping  to  solve  the  social  ques- 
tion that  they  are  doing  a  great  deal  to  make 
it  insolvable  by  deepening  the  antipathies  and 
alienations  which  weaken  the  social  bond.  The 
trouble  with  them  is  that  they  have  been  con- 
verted as  individuals ;  religion  is  with  them  too 
much  an  individual  matter  between  themselves 
and  God.  The  fact  that  one  man  can  no  more 
be  a  Christian  alone  than  one  man  can  sing  an 
oratorio  alone  is  the  fact  which  they  have  not 
clearly  comprehended.  The  failure  to  realize 
this  truth  results  in  highly  unsocial  conduct  on 
the  part  of  many  whose  piety  is  unquestioned. 
I  could  easily  multiply  instances  which  have 


8  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

come  under  my  own  observation  of  men  and 
women  who  were  humble,  trustful,  prayerful; 
who  obeyed,  also,  all  the  ordinary  rules  of  mo- 
rality, —  being  chaste,  truthful,  honest,  and 
bountiful  in  their  gifts,  —  and  yet  who  were 
deeply  distrusted  and  even  cordially  hated  by 
those  who  knew  them  best.  Shall  we  say  that 
it  was  their  superior  goodness  that  repelled 
their  neighbors?  That  is  not  a  safe  theory. 
Shall  we  say  that  they  were  hypocrites?  God 
forbid  that  we  should  thus  judge  them.  Their 
defective  conduct  arose  from  their  failure  to 
comprehend  their  vital  relations  to  their  fellow 
men.  That  the  essence  of  religion  is  righteous- 
ness they  would  not  deny,  but  the  social  nature 
of  righteousness  they  do  not  understand.  The 
breadth  and  comprehensiveness  of  the  law  of 
love  has  not  been  brought  home  to  them.  They 
think  of  God  as  a  Moral  Governor,  and  conceive 
of  his  kingdom  in  this  world  as  the  maintenance 
of  a  certain  rectoral  justice  between  man  and 
man;  those,  therefore,  who  keep  well  within 
the  requirements  of  common  honesty  are  not 
transgressors,  and  have  nothing  to  repent  of. 
Within  those  requirements  there  is  room  for  a 
great  deal  of  indifference  and  hard-hearted  dis- 
regard for  the  welfare  of  our  neighbors.  And 
I  think  that  those  who  scrupulously  keep  to  the 
letter  of  their  contracts,  who  always  pay  their 


RELIGION   AND  THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION    9 

debts,  who  can  never  be  accused  of  misrepresen- 
tation or  fraud,  but  who,  standing  on  these 
principles  of  common  honesty,  push  their  advan- 
tages relentlessly,  and  are  willing  to  profit  by 
the  misfortune  or  the  ignorance  of  those  with 
whom  they  deal,  are  rather  worse  hated,  in  their 
generation,  than  the  recognized  sharpers  and 
swindlers.  This  may  seem  a  hard  judgment, 
but  there  is  a  profound  reason  for  it.  For  the 
conception  of  the  divine  Fatherhood,  which  has 
been  gaining  possession  of  the  mind  of  Chris- 
tendom, has  greatly  modified  our  ideas  of  obli- 
gation and  sin,  and  our  ideals  of  character. 
The  discord  between  the  selfish  soul  and  the 
Father  whose  name  is  love  is  seen  to  be  a  far 
more  serious  thing  than  disobedience  to  a  Moral 
Governor  whose  reign  consists  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  rectoral  righteousness.  The  same  in- 
sight shows  us  what  is  the  root  of  all  the  trouble 
between  ourselves  and  our  fellow  men.  "The 
huge  disease  of  society,"  says  Dr.  Horton,  "is 
caused  by  the  lovelessness  of  men,"  —  not  by 
their  dishonesty  or  their  perfidy.  When  we 
realize  that  the  essence  of  sin  is  the  defect  of 
love,  there  is  a  new  standard  of  judgment  by 
which  to  measure  human  character,  and  there 
are  many  who  fall  before  it.  The  trouble  with 
these  pious  folk  who  have  incurred  the  ill-will 
of  their  neighbors  is  simply  this,  —  that  they 


10  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

have  kept  the  whole  law,  as  the  Pharisees  kept 
it,  and  yet  have  offended  at  one  point,  as  the 
Pharisees  offended, — that  one  point  being  pre- 
cisely the  vital  point,  in  which  the  whole  Chris- 
tian morality  originates.  What  they  lack  is 
simply  the  love  which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law.  Their  Christian  experience  is,  therefore, 
radically  defective,  because  they  have  had  no 
due  sense  of  sin  and  have  never  thoroughly  re- 
pented. And  the  reason  of  this  is  found  in  the 
failure  to  bring  home  to  them  the  truth  concern- 
ing their  social  relations.  They  have  practi- 
cally ignored  their  most  fundamental  obligation, 
because  they  have  not  conceived  of  Christian 
experience  as  involving  social  relations. 

The  social  question,  as  it  now  presents  itself, 
—  the  social  injustice  and  disorder  and  discon- 
tent are  due,  in  my  judgment,  very  largely  to 
the  lack  of  clearness  in  the  minds  of  Christian 
people  at  this  very  point.  Not  many  of  them 
have  yet  fully  comprehended  the  fact  that  the 
law  of  love  governs  the  whole  of  life;  that  it 
defines  our  relations  to  men  not  only  in  the  home 
and  in  the  church,  but  in  industry  and  com- 
merce and  politics.  Many  of  them  flatly  deny 
that  the  law  of  love  can  be  applied  to  the  ordi- 
nary social  relations;  most  of  them  make  but 
feeble  attempts  to  rule  their  lives  by  it,  in  the 
larger   realms   of  human   activity.     When  we 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    11 

say,  therefore,  that  if  all  men  were  "soundly 
converted  "  there  would  be  no  social  question, 
we  must  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  no  man  can 
be  said  to  be  soundly  converted  who  fails  to 
understand  or  to  obey  the  law  of  love.  Con- 
version is  something  more  than  a  change  in  the 
religious  sentiments;  it  involves  a  change  in 
the  ruling  ideas  as  well  as  in  the  sensibilities. 
"Change  your  minds!  "  is  the  first  order.  This 
means  that  there  is  a  system  of  relations  in 
which  you  with  all  other  beings  are  included; 
the  fundamental  trouble  with  you  is  that  you 
are  out  of  your  place  in  that  system,  and  that 
you  have  wrong  ideas  about  it  all ;  you  must  get 
right  ideas,  and  through  right  ideas  you  must 
get  into  right  relations.  Salvation  is  just  that 
—  getting  into  right  relations;  and  no  man  is 
in  the  way  of  salvation  until  he  has  in  some 
dim  way  grasped  that  idea,  and  tried  to  real- 
ize it. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  view  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  which  puts  the  whole  emphasis  upon 
individual  experience  is  seen  to  result  in  defec- 
tive conduct  and  in  morbid  social  conditions. 
And  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  defective  conduct 
of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  the  unhappy  so- 
cial conditions  which  have  resulted  therefrom, 
have  been  due  in  considerable  measure  to  an 
excessive  emphasis  upon  individual  experience, 


L2  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

and  a  failure  to  give  proper  weight  to  the  social 
relations  and  obligations,  in  the  fulfillment  of 
which  alone  the  Christian  life  can  find  expres- 
sion. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  defects  which  I  have 
pointed  out  are,  after  all,  only  the  defects  of 
individuals,  and  can  be  remedied  only  by  the 
action  of  individuals.  This  is  true;  but  the 
defective  conduct  of  these  individuals  is  in  their 
social  relations.  Their  defective  conduct  can- 
not be  remedied  unless  they  have  the  right  ideas 
as  well  as  the  right  feelings  about  their  social 
relations.  The  social  ideal,  as  well  as  the  indi- 
vidual ideal,  must  be  clearly  before  their  minds; 
indeed,  the  two  can  no  more  be  separated  in 
Christian  morality  than  the  outside  of  a  curve 
can  be  separated  from  the  inside.  The  moral- 
ity which  separates  them  is  something  other 
than  Christian  morality.  No  individual  can  be 
right  with  his  God  who  is  not  in  right  relations 
to  his  neighbors.  And  it  is  doubtful  whether 
any  individual  can  have  any  adequate  idea  of 
his  relation  to  God  except  as  he  learns  it  in  the 
fulfillment  of  his  relations  to  his  fellow  nun. 
"lie  that  loveth  not  bis  brother  whom  he  hath 
seen,  cannot  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen." 

"Belief  in  God,"  says  President  Hyde,  "is 
something  no  logician  can  argue  into  us,  no 
apologist  can  prove ;  any  more  than  by  arguing 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL   QUESTION     13 

the  logician  can  satisfy  our  hunger  if  we  have 
no  food,  or  the  apologist  can  assuage  our  thirst 
if  we  refuse  to  drink  the  water  that  he  offers. 
The  bread  and  the  water  of  the  spiritual  life 
are  the  doing  of  one's  duty  and  the  service  of 
our  fellows ;  and  without  these  elements  one  can 
never  have  the  life  of  fellowship  with  God,  of 
which  they  are  the  indispensable  constituents. 
Faith  in  a  living  God,  in  other  words,  must 
be  wrought  out  of  our  own  moral  and  spiritual 
experience.  The  man  who  gains  it  in  that 
way,  by  doing  his  work  as  a  member  of  a  great 
spiritual  order,  and  serving  his  fellow  men  as 
members  of  the  same  great  kingdom  of  which 
he  is  a  part,  comes  to  know  God  with  the  same 
certainty  that  the  fish  knows  the  water,  the  bird 
the  air,  or  any  living  thing  the  environment  in 
which  it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being."1 

It  is  this  spiritual  order  through  which  God 
is  revealed  to  man,  and  through  which  man  ap- 
proaches God.  There  can  be  no  adequate  know- 
ledge of  God  save  that  which  is  mediated 
through  this  spiritual  order  which  is  the  social 
order. 

All  these  considerations  seem  to  make  it  plain 
that  there  is  no  possibility  of  separating  the 
individual  from  society,  and  drawing  a  line  be- 
tween individual  experience  and  social  responsi- 

1  God's  Education  of  Man,  p.  22. 


11  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

bilitj.  A  groat  economist  has  said  that  in  the 
modern  industrial  world  there  is,  in  strictness, 
no  such  thing  as  an  individual;  and  if  tin-  is 
true  of  economics,  it  cannot  be  less  true  of  eth- 
ics and  religion.  When  the  fundamental  fact 
of  theology  is  the  fact  of  fatherhood,  the  fact  of 
brotherhood  cannot  be  ignored  in  any  phase  of 
religious  experience. 

Any  treatment  of  social  questions  which  failed 
to  bring  the  responsibility  for  right  social  ac- 
tions home  to  individuals  would,  indeed,  be 
defective  treatment;  on  the  other  hand,  any  dis- 
cussion of  the  problems  of  the  individual  life 
which  did  not  keep  the  social  environment 
steadily  in  view  would  be  utterly  inadequate. 

I  am  therefore  unable  to  understand  how 
Christianity,  whether  as  a  law  or  as  a  gospel, 
can  be  intelligently  or  adequately  preached  or 
lived  in  these  days  without  a  constant  reference 
to  social  questions.  No  individual  is  soundly 
converted  until  he  comprehends  his  social  rela- 
tions and  strives  to  fulfill  them ;  and  the  work 
of  growth  and  sanctification  largely  consists  in 
a  clearer  apprehension  of  these  relations  and  a 
more  earnest  effort  to  fill  them  with  the  life  of 
the  divine  Spirit.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
within  us  and  among  us;  the  preposition,  in 
Christ's  saying,  seems  to  have  the  double  mean- 
ing.    It  cannot  be  anions  us  unless  it  is  within 


RELIGION  AND  THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION     15 

us,  and  it  cannot  be  within  us  without  being 
among  us. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  minister's 
work,  in  these  days,  must  lie,  very  largely,  along 
the  lines  of  social  amelioration.  He  is  bound  to 
understand  the  laws  of  social  structure.  It  is 
just  as  needful  that  he  should  understand  the 
constitution  of  human  society  as  that  he  should 
understand  the  constitution  of  the  human  soul; 
the  one  comes  under  his  purview  no  less  directly 
than  the  other.  He  does  not  know  definitely 
what  sin  is,  unless  he  understands  the  nature 
of  the  social  bond;  he  does  not  surely  know 
what  salvation  means  until  he  has  comprehended 
the  reciprocal  action  of  society  upon  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  the  individual  upon  society.  The 
men  who  are  working  out  their  own  salvation 
are  doing  it  largely  through  the  establishment 
of  right  relations  between  themselves  and  their 
neighbors,  and  he  cannot  help  them  in  this  un- 
less he  has  some  clear  idea  of  what  these  right 
relations  are. 

I  am  aware  that  there  have  been  good  men  to 
whom  these  social  aspects  of  the  work  of  the 
ministry  did  not  strongly  appeal.  Our  own  Dr. 
Dale  of  Birmingham,  England,  was  one  of  the 
wisest  and  strongest  of  our  Congregational  min- 
isters ;  and  he  was  inclined  to  deprecate  all  at- 
tempts to  unite  social  enterprises  with  the  work 


16  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

of  the  church.  To  what  extent  he  preached  on 
such  Bubjects  I  do  not  know,  —  I  think  not 
often;  and  he  did  not  approve  of  enlisting  the 
church,  as  such,  in  schemes  of  social  ameliora- 
tion, lie  thought  the  church  ought  to  be  in- 
spired, from  the  pulpit,  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
humanity,  which  would  lead  its  members  to  en- 
gage actively  in  social  service;  but  he  did  not 
consider  the  church  itself  a  fitting  instrument 
for  such  service.  Dr.  Dale  himself  was  a  most 
active  and  zealous  worker  in  many  social  re- 
forms; he  was  a  member  of  the  great  national 
commission  by  which  the  present  system  of 
public  primary  education  was  organized  ;  he 
was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  influential 
leaders  of  the  Liberal  Party;  he  was  one  of 
the  foremost  citizens  of  Birmingham.  His  con- 
duct shows,  therefore,  what  relation  he  thought 
a  Christian  man  and  a  Christian  minister  ought 
to  sustain  to  current  social  questions.  All  that 
he  intended  to  discountenance  was  the  enlistment 
of  the  church  in  this  kind  of  service.  These 
are  his  words.  He  is  speaking  of  the  contention 
that  the  church  should  interest  itself  in  social 
questions :  — 

"If  all  that  is  meant  is  that  Christian  men  as 
citizens  should  do  their  utmost  to  improve  the 
social  and  economic  condition  of  the  people, 
there  is  nothing  new  in  the  proposal.    For  thirty 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    17 

years  I  have  been  preaching  that  doctrine,  and 
according  to  my  strength  and  light  have  been 
endeavoring  to  practice  it.  Nor  have  Christian 
men  generally  been  indifferent  to  the  duty.  In 
the  agitation  which  secured  the  great  though 
imperfect  Education  Act  of  1870, — an  Act 
which  has  achieved  an  immense  improvement  in 
the  condition  of  great  masses  of  the  people,  — 
a  large  proportion  of  the  men  who  did  most  of 
the  work,  and  who  encountered  most  of  the 
obloquy  which  has  to  be  endured  by  all  reform- 
ers, were  ministers  and  members  of  churches  in 
Birmingham  and  other  parts  of  England.  But 
we  did  our  work  as  citizens.  Our  churches,  as 
I  remember,  were  not  asked  to  pass  resolutions 
in  favor  of  a  system  of  education,  '  national, 
compulsory,  unsectarian,  and  free,'  nor  did  we 
make  collections  for  the  League.  I  believe  that 
the  work  was  best  done  in  that  way.  The 
church  should  create  in  all  its  members  an  eager 
desire  to  lessen  the  sorrow,  the  suffering,  and 
the  injustice  as  well  as  the  sin  of  the  world; 
but  it  is  not  yet  clear  to  my  mind,  that  the 
church,  as  a  religious  society,  should  take  part 
in  political,  social,  and  economic  agitation."1 

There  is,  indeed,  some  good  reason  for  doubt- 
ing whether  local  churches  should  turn  theni- 

1  The  International  Congregational  Council,  London,  1891, 
Authorized  Record  of  Proceedings,  pp.  xxxi,  xxxii. 


18  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

selves  into  clubs  for  any  sort  of  political  or 
social  propagandising  these  arc  questions  upon 
which  there  are  apl  to  be  differences  of  opinion, 
and  a  church  would  better  not  undertake  any 
kind  of  active  work  in  which  its  members  can- 
not pretty  unanimously  agree.  It  is  doubtless 
better  that  organizations  should  be  formed  out- 
side the  churches,  bringing  together  men  of 
good-will  from  all  the  churches,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  temperance,  and  municipal  reform, 
and  other  general  social  interests.  These  move- 
ments, as  Dr.  Dale  suggests,  the  churches 
should  inspire,  and  the  members  of  the  churches 
will  do  a  considerable  portion  of  their  Christian 
work  in  them. 

But  how  is  the  church  to  "create  in  its  mem- 
bers an  eager  desire  to  lessen  the  sorrow,  the 
suffering,  and  the  injustice  as  well  as  the  sin 
of  the  world?"  Can  this  be  done  by  purely 
abstract  teaching?  Must  not  the  church  en- 
courage its  minister  to  keep  it  well  informed 
respecting  these  conditions?  Must  not  the  pul- 
pit, in  wise  proportion,  set  forth  the  law  of  love, 
as  it  applies  to  the  institutions  and  the  customs 
of  society,  and  show  what  evils  result  from  its 
violation,  and  what  blessings  flow  from  obeying 
it?  I  do  not  understand  how  the  church  can 
inspire  its  members  to  perform  their  social  du- 
ties, unless  the  church  is  thoroughly  interested 


RELIGION  AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION     19 

in  the  whole  subject,  and  feels  that  its  religion 
is  vain,  if  it  be  not  pouring  a  stream  of  saving 
influence  into  all  the  various  channels  of  social 
activity. 

I  find  in  an  essay  by  one  of  the  most  thought- 
ful and  judicious  of  modern  writers  another 
warning  against  the  kind  of  preaching  which  I 
am  advocating,  to  which  I  desire  to  draw  your 
attention :  — 

"To  what  extent  is  the  Christianity  preached 
to  be  an  applied  Christianity?  In  what  way 
and  to  what  extent  are  the  social,  the  economi- 
cal, and  the  political  questions  of  the  hour  to 
be  dealt  with  by  the  preacher?  Apostolic  Chris- 
tianity offers  an  answer  which  it  were  well  if 
our  own  day  would  carefully  restudy.  We  find 
in  the  primitive  church  a  complete  absence  of 
what  may  be  called  the  ordinary  social,  economi- 
cal, and  political  propaganda.  The  conditions 
in  these  respects  were  in  all  conscience  bad 
enough,  but  they  did  not  form  the  subject  of 
Christ's  or  the  apostles'  preaching.  Slavery 
existed,  and  in  the  most  cruel  form,  but  no  anti- 
slavery  crusade  was  set  afoot.  Judea  was  a 
crushed  nationality,  but  these  Jewish  exhorters 
had  nothing  to  say  about  a  political  redemption. 
One  saw  everywhere  the  extremest  poverty,  but 
the  disciples  never  interested  themselves  in  the 
principles  of  '  The  Wealth  of  Nations.'     Why 


20  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

was  this?  The  lesson  lias  been  Btrangely  mis- 
understood, and  by  more  than  one  side  In 
Borne  quarters  the  Eacts  are  used  to  show  the 
utter  impracticability  of  Christianity  as  a  sys- 
tem  of  life;  in  others  to  show  that  the  only  true 
follower  of  Christ  is  the  Belf-renouncing  monk. 
Both  are  wrong.  The  reason  why  primitive 
Christianity  had  no  specific  anti-slavery,  anti- 
poverty,  anti-despotism  propaganda  lay  in  no 
sense  in  the  fact  that  it  acquiesced  in  slavery 
or  poverty  or  despotism.  Actually  it  was  the 
enemy  of  them  all,  and  in  the  end  will  he  fatal 
to  them  all.  The  primitive  silence  on  these 
matters  lay  in  the  fact  to  which  we  need  to-day 
to  give  our  fullest  attention,  that  the  new  thing 
which  Christianity  had  brought  in  was  of  infi- 
nitely more  value  to  life  than  all  these,  and  its 
propagation  accordingly  of  far  more  importance. 
If  only  the  pulpit  would  believe  it!  When  the 
preacher  has  become  merely  political,  it  is  be- 
cause he  has  lost  grip  of  religion.  As  long  as 
this  last  is  vital  in  him,  he  cannot  help  seeing 
that  it  is  of  infinitely  more  political  and  social 
and  economical  value  than  any  politics  or  social- 

(isnis  or  economics.  To  Paul  it  was  so  much 
more  worth  while  to  make  a  slave  a  Christian 
than  to  agitate  for  his  freedom!  There  will 
always  be  enough  and  to  spare  of  politicians; 
what  the  world  really  wants  is  men  who  have 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    21 

news  from  the  land  of  the  ideal,  who  have  God's 
life  within  them,  who  open  afresh  the  springs  of 
living  water  that  quench  the  thirst  of  the  soul." 1 

I  have  quoted  at  length  this  impressive  pro- 
test, because  it  is  the  strongest  statement  I  have 
read  of  the  objection  we  are  considering.  We 
shall  all  do  well  to  give  earnest  heed  to  it. 

One  point  of  the  argument  is  familiar,  but  it 
has  less  force  than  is  sometimes  supposed.  The 
fact  that  Jesus  and  his  apostles  did  not  deal 
with  social  questions  in  their  political  aspects 
may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  those  to 
whom  they  spoke  had  no  political  responsibili- 
ties. They  were  not  citizens,  they  were  sub- 
jects; to  preach  politics  to  them  would  be  like 
preaching  about  dancing  to  people  with  ampu- 
tated limbs.  If  the  followers  of  Jesus  had  been 
sovereigns,  men  clothed  with  political  responsi- 
bility, probably  he  would  have  had  something 
to  say  to  them  about  their  political  duties.  The 
men  to  whom  you  and  I  preach  are  sovereigns, 
—  the  sovereign  people  ;  voters  in  this  country 
are  "the  powers  that  be;"  they  are  ordained 
of  God  to  organize  and  administer  civil  society, 
and  they  need  instruction  about  their  duties. 
The  affirmative  considerations  which  this  writer 
urges  are,  however,  of  deep  significance,  as  we 

1  Rev.  J.  Brierley,  in  London  Christian  World,  July  25, 
1901. 


22  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

shall  presently  see.  Nor  am  I  sure  that  he 
would  not  assent  to  most  of  what  I  have  been 
trying  to  urge.  A  little  farther  on  in  the  same 
essay  I  find  lii in  Baying  this:  — 

"That  the  church  is  the  representative  of  the 
eternal  in  the  midst  of  time  does  not,  however, 
absolve  it  from  a  heavy  responsibility  in  rela- 
tion to  the  things  of  time.  Its  message  will 
have  these  continually  within  its  scope,  but  ever 
to  bring  them  under  its  own  light,  to  view  them 
sub  specie  a  t<  rnltatls.  The  pulpit  cannot  be 
silent  on  sins,  whether  national  or  individual, 
that  are  destroying  spiritual  life;  no,  not 
though  it  suffers  as  did  a  Chrysostom  at  Con- 
stantinople or  a  Savonarola  at  Florence.  But 
when  men  speak  on  these  themes,  they  must  have 
a  call.  The  true  prophet  knows  that  his  mes- 
sage has  been  given  to  him,  and  that  it  must  be 
spoken  at  all  hazards.  The  question  of  pulpit 
speech  or  silence  on  a  given  theme  depends  so 
much  on  who  is  in  the  pulpit.  No  man  should 
speak  on  disputed  points  who  has  not  first 
earned  the  right  to  speak;  a  right  centred  in 
the  trust  and  esteem  of  his  hearers,  and  gained 
as  the  wage  of  character  or  service."1 

This  last  admonition  cannot  be  too  strongly 
emphasized.     Let  no  man  speak  on  these  themes 

1  Rev.  J.  Brierley,   in  Loudon    Christian  World,  July  25, 
1901. 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    23 

who  has  not  qualified  himself  by  careful  study ; 
who  does  not  thoroughly  know  what  he  is  talk- 
ing about.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  crude 
preaching  on  social  questions,  the  whole  effect 
of  which  is  mischievous.  I  have  known  men 
to  prepare  themselves,  by  two  or  three  months' 
study,  to  give  courses  of  lectures  on  these  themes 
before  theological  seminaries.  Every  week  I  am 
receiving  letters  from  ministers,  who  say  that 
they  have  given  no  attention  to  such  subjects, 
and  who  wish  me  to  put  them  in  possession  of 
material  for  sermons  or  addresses  to  be  delivered 
within  a  week  or  two.  The  breadth  and  com- 
plexity of  these  social  questions  are  but  dimly 
apprehended  by  many  who  dabble  in  them. 
This  is  no  reason  for  avoiding  them ;  but  it  is  a 
reason  for  making  diligent  preparation  to  speak 
upon  them.  Many  of  the  subjects  on  which  we 
must  speak  call  for  patient  and  thorough  study ; 
to  evade  them  because  of  their  difficulty  would 
be  infidelity  to  our  trust ;  we  must  earnestly  seek 
to  master  them. 

With  the  work  of  the  leading  modern  econo- 
mists and  sociologists  every  minister  ought  to 
be  acquainted.  Not  that  he  is  to  preach  eco- 
nomics or  sociology ;  but  he  needs  to  be  familiar 
with  the  constructive  ideas  on  which  these  sci- 
ences are  based,  and  with  the  facts  by  which 
they  are  supported.     In  the  work  of  some  of 


24  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

these  students  of  society  he  will  find  much  that 
will  greatly  aid  him,  for  there  arc  not  a  few  of 

thrni  to  whom  the  larger  aspects  of  these  pro- 
blems are  fully  revealed.  But  the  Christian 
student  must  always  be  on  his  guard  against  a 
pseudo-science  which  ignores  the  spiritual  realm, 
and  bases  social  laws  upon  an  induction  in  which 
the  larger  half  of  human  nature  is  neglected. 
A  good  deal  of  economic  theory  rests  upon  a 
purely  materialistic  foundation;  upon  assump- 
tions which  deny  human  freedom,  and  the  play 
of  the  moral  forces;  upon  the  notion  that  the 
laws  of  human  nature  are  of  the  same  order  as 
those  of  gravitation  and  chemical  affinity.  The 
fact  for  you  and  me  to  keep  steadily  before  us 
is  that  human  society  is  under  the  sway  of  spir- 
itual motives ;  that  it  is  constantly  undergoing 
renovation  through  the  ideals  which  men  enter- 
tain and  the  choices  which  they  make ;  that  hu- 
man nature  is  modifiable,  and  is  constantly  be- 
ing modified,  under  the  influence  of  the  divine 
Spirit,  so  that  social  standards  and  ruling  ideas 
are  gradually  changing  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. This  is  not  mere  sentiment;  it  is  the 
scientific  fact,  the  historic  fact,  just  as  verifiable 
as  any  law  of  chemistry  or  biology,  and  we  are 
to  take  our  stand  upon  it,  and  insist  upon  inter- 
preting the  phenomena  of  society  in  the  light  of 
the  spiritual  laws.     With  the  politics  and  the 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    25 

economics  which  are  separated  from  the  spirit- 
ual realm  and  which  rest,  whether  avowedly  or 
implicitly,  upon  a  materialistic  basis,  we  have 
nothing  to  do,  except  to  show  their  defective- 
ness. But  if  we  need  to  study  the  heresies  of 
past  and  present  ages  in  order  that  we  may  be 
able,  under  the  cross-lights  of  this  investigation, 
more  clearly  to  apprehend  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, there  is  certainly  no  less  need  that  we 
should  be  familiar  with  defective  theories  of 
social  relations,  in  order  that  we  may  the  better 
understand  the  true  theory  which  supplements 
and  corrects  them.  And  as  in  the  study  of 
the  heresies  we  always  find  some  truth  which 
we  need  to  know,  so  in  our  study  even  of  mate- 
rialistic economics  we  shall  discover  many  facts 
of  deep  significance. 

The  truth  which  Mr.  Brierley  emphasizes  in 
the  passage  which  I  last  read  is  the  truth  which 
we  must  never  forget.  The  church,  he  says, 
will  have  these  social  subjects  "continually 
within  its  scope,  but  ever  to  bring  them  under 
its  own  light,  to  view  them  sub  specie  cetemi- 
tatis."  Yea,  verily.  We  have  absolutely  no 
business  whatever  with  any  of  these  things  ex- 
cept as  they  are  vitally  and  inseparably  related 
to  that  kingdom  of  heaven  for  whose  coming  we 
pray,  whose  presence  we  ought  to  be  quick  to 
discern,  and  whose  spread  it  is  our  first  business 


26  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

to  seek.  "When  the  minister  has  become 
merely  political,"  says  Mr.  Brierley,  "it  is  be- 
cause he  lias  lost  grip  of  religion."  That  pro- 
position ought  to  require  no  argument.  The 
minister  who  has  become  merely  or  mainly  po- 
litical, or  sociological,  or  economical,  or  scien- 
tific, has  abandoned  his  vocation.  The  minister 
to  whom  religion  is  not  the  central  and  culmi- 
nating power  in  all  his  teaching  has  no  right 
in  any  Christian  pulpit.  It  is  the  religion  of 
politics,  of  economics,  of  sociology  that  we  are 
to  teach,  —  nothing  else.  We  are  to  bring  the 
truths  and  the  powers  of  the  spiritual  world, 
the  eternal  world,  to  bear  upon  all  these  themes. 
This  is  what  we  have  to  do  with  these  social 
questions,  and  we  have  nothing  else  to  do  with 
them. 

The  first  thing  for  us  to  understand  is  that 
God  is  in  his  world,  and  that  we  are  workers 
together  with  him.  In  all  this  industrial  strug- 
gle he  is  present  in  every  part  of  it,  working 
according  to  the  counsel  of  his  perfect  will. 
In  the  gleams  of  light  which  sometimes  break 
forth  from  the  darkness  of  the  conflict  we  dis- 
cern his  inspiration;  in  the  stirrings  of  good- 
will which  temper  the  wasting  strife  we  behold 
the  evidence  of  his  presence;  in  the  sufferings 
and  losses  and  degradations  which  wait  upon 
every  violation  of  his  law  of  love  we  witness  the 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    27 

retributions  with  which  that  law  goes  armed. 
In  the  weltering  masses  of  poverty ;  in  the  giddy- 
throngs  that  tread  the  paths  of  vice ;  in  the  mul- 
titudes distressed  and  scattered  as  sheep  having 
no  shepherd ;  in  the  brutalized  ranks  marching 
in  lock-step  through  the  prison  yard;  in  the 
groups  of  politicians  scheming  for  place  and 
plunder,  —  in  all  the  most  forlorn  and  untoward 
and  degrading  human  associations,  the  One 
who  is  never  absent  is  that  divine  Spirit  which 
brooded  over  the  chaos  at  the  beginning,  nurs- 
ing it  to  life  and  beauty,  and  which  is 

"  nearer  to  every  creature  he  hath  made, 
Than  anything  unto  itself  can  be." 

Nay,  there  is  not  one  of  these  hapless,  sinning 
multitudes  in  whose  spirit  he  is  not  present  to 
will  and  to  work  according  to  his  good  plea- 
sure; never  overpowering  the  will,  but  gently 
pressing  in,  by  every  avenue  open  to  him,  his 
gifts  of  love  and  truth.  As  he  has  for  every 
man's  life  a  plan,  so  has  he  for  the  common  life 
a  perfect  social  order  into  which  he  seeks  to 
lead  his  children,  that  he  may  give  them  plenty 
and  blessedness  and  abundance  of  peace  as  long 
as  the  moon  endure th.  Surely  he  has  a  way  for 
men  to  live  in  society ;  he  has  a  way  of  organ- 
izing industry;  he  has  a  way  of  life  for  the 
family,  and  for  the  school,  and  for  the  shop,  and 
for  the  city,  and  for  the  state ;  he  has  a  way  for 


28  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

preventing  poverty,  and  :i  way  l"<>r  helping  and 
saving  the  poor  and  the  sick  and  the  sinful; 
and  it  is  his  way  that  we  are  to  seek  and  point 
out  and  follow.     We  cannol  know  it  perfectly, 

but  if  we  are  humble  and  faithful  and  obedient, 
we  shall  come  to  understand  it  better  and  better 
;i^  the  years  go  by.  The  one  thing  for  us  to  be 
sure  of  is  that  God  has  a  way  for  human  beings 
to  live  and  work  together,  just  as  truly  as  he 
has  a  way  for  the  stars  over  our  heads  and  the 
crystals  under  our  feet;  and  that  it  is  man's 
chief  end  to  find  this  way  and  follow  it. 

"  What  the  world  really  wants,"  says  the 
teacher  I  have  quoted,  uis  men  who  have  news 
from  the  land  of  the  ideal,  who  have  God's  life 
within  them,  who  open  afresh  the  springs  of 
living  water  that  quench  the  thirst  of  the  soul." 
Nothing  can  be  truer.  But  for  what  kind  of 
news  from  the  land  of  the  ideal  are  men  hun- 
gering and  thirsting?  For  the  news  that  brings 
the  ideal  down  to  earth ;  that  makes  it  no  mere 
dreamy  possibility  of  far-off  good,  but  the  lamp 
of  our  feet  and  the  light  of  our  path  now  and 
here.  For  all  this  common  life  of  ours  there 
are  ideals  that  uplift  and  transfigure  and  enno- 
ble it.  There  is  an  ideal  for  the  home  and  for 
the  church,  for  the  school  and  for  the  shop, 
for  the  factory  and  for  the  city:  and  the  one 
refreshing  and  inspiring  experience  of  life  is  to 


RELIGION  AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    29 

sret  sifflit  of  it,  and  believe  in  it.  The  ideal  in 
all  these  social  organizations  is  nothing  else  but 
God's  way,  — the  way  that  he  has  ordained  for 
human  beings  to  live  and  work  together.  The 
thing  for  us  to  do  is  first  to  discern  it  ourselves, 
and  then  to  get  men  to  see  it,  and  believe  in  it, 
and  work  for  it  with  heart  and  soul  and  mind 
and  strength.  It  will  not  be  realized  all  at 
once ;  it  will  take  long  years  of  labor  and  pa- 
tience; but  it  is  the 

"  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves," 

and  we  know  that  there  can  be  no  permanent 
peace  or  welfare  but  that  to  which  it  beckons  us. 
I  trust,  my  brethren,  that  I  have  made  plain 
to  you  my  own  deep  conviction  that  the  work 
of  the  ministry  in  these  days  must  be  deeply 
concerned  with  social  questions.  I  trust  that 
you  will  all  find  in  your  own  hearts  a  growing 
interest  in  these  questions,  and  that  you  will  be 
able  to  communicate  that  interest  to  the  people 
to  whom  you  are  sent;  to  kindle  in  their  hearts 
the  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  and  to  guide  them 
in  their  thoughts  and  labors  for  their  fellow 
men.  And  I  trust  that  you  can  also  see  that 
this  social  teaching  and  social  service  is  not 
something  outside  of  religion;  that  religion  is 
and  must  be  the  heart  and  soul  of  it  all ;  that  it 


30  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

means  nothing  bnt  religion  coming  to  realit\  in 
everyday  life;  the  divine  [deal  descending  upon 
human  society  and  transforming  it  from  glory- 
to  glory,  even  as  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord.  If 
there  is  any  treatment  of  social  questions  in  the 
pulpit  which  has  any  other  aim  or  inspiration 
than  this,  I  have  no  faith  in  it.  If  any  min- 
ister thinks  that  he  can  wisely  separate  these 
questions  from  religion  and  treat  them  upon  the 
basis  of  economic  theory  or  political  expediency, 
1  do  not  agree  with  him.  I  do  not,  for  my  own 
part,  expect  to  see  any  radical  or  permanent 
cure  discovered  for  poverty  or  pauperism,  for 
grinding  monopoly  or  municipal  corruption,  for 
bribery  or  debauchery  or  crime,  except  as  men's 
minds  and  hearts  are  opened  to  receive  the 
truths  of  the  spiritual  world;  except  as  they  are 
brought  into  conscious  and  vital  relations  with 
things  unseen  and  eternal.  There  can  be  no 
adequate  social  reform  save  that  which  springs 
from  a  genuine  revival  of  religion ;  only  it  must 
be  a  religion  which  is  less  concerned  about  get- 
ting men  to  heaven  than  about  fitting  them  for 
their  proper  work  on  the  earth ;  which  does  not 
set  itself  over  against  the  secular  life  in  con- 
trast, but  enters  into  the  secular  life  and  sub- 
dues it  by  its  power  and  rules  it  by  its  law,  and 
transfigures  it  by  its  light.     For  any  other  kind 


RELIGION   AND   THE   SOCIAL  QUESTION    31 

of  religion  than  this  I  do  not  think  that  the 
world  has  any  longer  very  much  use. 

May  God  fill  your  lives  with  it,  and  teach 
you  how  to  bring  home  its  truth  and  reality  to 
the  hearts  of  men. 


II 

TITE   CARE   OF   THE   TOOR 

The  social  question  which  is  likely  first  to 
present  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  conscientious 
pastor  is  the  condition  and  needs  of  the  poor 
who  live  within  the  territory  for  whose  care  as 
pastor  he  feels  himself  responsible.  It  may  be 
that  he  will  find  a  small  number  of  poor  families 
connected  with  his  congregation,  but  there  is 
reason  to  fear  that  the  number  of  really  needy 
families  will  be  very  small  indeed  in  almost  any 
congregation  to  which  you  are  likely  to  be 
called.  If  when  Jesus  said,  "The  poor  ye  have 
always  with  you,"  he  meant,  "in  your  churches," 
his  prediction  is  not,  in  our  day,  generally  ful- 
filled. The  reason  of  this  is,  in  part,  that  the 
greater  number  of  the  really  needy  have  be- 
come so  by  reason  of  defective  moral  conduct 
which,  according  to  our  Congregational  theory  of 
church-membership,  would  exclude  them  from 
the  fellowship  of  the  church.  Yet  there  is  also, 
I  fear,  a  serious  failure  on  the  part  of  most  of 
our  churches  to  comprehend  the  full  meaning  of 
the  Parable  of  the  Lost  Sheep,  and  to  put  forth 


THE   CARE  OF  THE   POOR  33 

the  kind  of  effort  in  seeking  and  saving  the  lost 
which  Jesus  expects  of  his  disciples. 

So  far  as  the  poor  have  been  drawn  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  church  and  surrounded  by  its 
saving  influences,  the  care  of  them  has  ceased  to 
be  a  social  question.  Respecting  your  relation 
to  them  you  have  been  instructed  in  your  lec- 
tures on  pastoral  theology.  It  is  the  poor  who 
are  outside  all  churches,  or  but  slenderly  con- 
nected with  them,  of  whom  we  are  thinking  now. 
We  have  them  always  near  us,  if  not  with  us ; 
and  the  relation  of  the  minister  and  the  church 
to  this  multitude  distressed  and  scattered,  as 
sheep  not  having  a  shepherd,  presents  a  serious 
problem  to  every  young  minister. 

When  I  speak  of  the  poor  I  mean  those  who 
are  living,  much  of  the  time,  in  destitution  and 
penury;  who  are  frequently  out  of  work,  and 
suffering  for  lack  of  the  necessaries  of  life ;  who 
are  apt  to  apply  to  charitable  agencies,  or  to  the 
officers  of  the  city  or  the  town,  for  assistance. 
That  the  proportion  of  this  class  to  the  entire 
population  has  been  rapidly  increasing  since  the 
civil  war,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Statistics  on 
the  subject  are  unsatisfactory,  owing  to  the  lack 
of  uniformity  in  the  methods  by  which  they  are 
compiled ;  but  my  own  pretty  careful  observa- 
tion, in  a  ministry  covering  this  entire  period, 
convinces  me  that  such  is  the  case. 


34  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

The  reasons  for  this  increase  are  not  far  to 
seek. 

The  rapid  shifting  of  industries,  by  which 
many  laborers  are  displaced,  and  the  frequent 
periods  of  industrial  depression  have  thrown 
many  temporarily  out  of  employment;  in  such 
enforced  leisure,  habits  of  idleness  and  depend- 
ence are  formed  which  tend  to  become  chronic. 

The  multiplication  of  machinery,  the  concen- 
tration of  business,  and  the  stress  of  competition 
are  driving  the  entire  industrial  mechanism  at 
a  greatly  accelerated  speed,  and  only  the  most 
efficient  and  adaptable  are  wanted;  laborers  of 
low  intelligence  and  little  skill  find  it  increas- 
ingly difficult  to  keep  in  the  movement;  they 
are  flung  off,  in  large  numbers,  and  left  to  the 
care  of  charity. 

The  growth  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  are  more  compassionate  than  judicious  also 
tends  to  propagate  dependence  and  poverty; 
the  presence  in  any  community  of  a  consider- 
able fund  of  money,  and  superfluous  food,  and 
partly  worn  clothing,  ready  to  be  distributed, 
without  careful  investigation,  by  impulsive  and 
sentimental  givers,  constitutes  an  effective  de- 
mand for  mendicancy,  and  the  supply  is  unfail- 
ing- 

The  increasing  number  of  charitable   funds 

and  institutions  has  the  same  effect.    The  know- 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  35 

ledge  that  those  in  any  given  community  who 
can  make  out  a  fairly  good  case  of  destitu- 
tion will  receive  aid  draws  to  that  community 
the  shiftless  and  improvident  from  the  country 
round  about.  In  the  city  where  I  live  I  can 
name  quite  a  number  of  families  that  have  been 
added  to  our  population  within  the  last  twenty 
years  for  this  reason.  In  their  country  homes 
they  were  well  known,  and  their  claims  upon 
compassion  would  have  been  more  sharply  ques- 
tioned ;  the  city  offered  a  much  more  promis- 
ing opportunity  to  those  who  were  willing  to  be 
dependent. 

We  may  add  to  these  causes  the  loose  admin- 
istration of  public  outdoor  relief  in  most  of  our 
cities.  That  the  public  funds  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor  in  their  homes  are  distributed  generally 
upon  wholly  inadequate  investigation,  and  some- 
times with  corrupt  intent,  —  to  reward  party  ser- 
vices or  to  gain  votes,  —  is  not  to  be  doubted. 

What  may  be  called  the  natural  causes  of 
poverty  are  always  at  work  —  sickness,  accident, 
inherited  infirmity,  or  disability;  but  we  have 
been  considering  the  reasons  for  the  propor- 
tional increase  in  the  number  of  dependents; 
and  we  find  these  reasons,  partly  in  unwonted 
economic  disturbances,  partly  in  injudicious 
charity,  and  partly  in  bad  political  administra- 
tion.    Some  of  these  causes  are  at  least  in  part 


36  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

removable,  as  we  shall  see  in  subsequent  discus- 
sions. 

But  whatever  the  causes  may  be,  the  condi- 
t ions  confront  ns  everywhere.  The  statisticians 
tell  us  that  our  wealth  per  capita  has  been 
mounting  up,  decade  by  decade,  with  almost  in- 
credible  rapidity,  but  the  number  of  dependents 
gains  upon  the  population.  In  every  consider- 
able community  there  are  those  who  derive  part 
if  not  all  of  their  subsistence  from  public  or 
private  charity.  Even  the  smaller  cities  have 
their  slums,  where  the  conditions  of  life  are  most 
depressing,  and  groups  of  the  miserable  are 
within  the  sound  of  most  of  our  church  bells. 
With  these,  it  is  evident,  we  have  some  im- 
portant business.  However  they  came  to  be 
where  they  are,  they  are  there,  within  our  reach, 
and  they  need  our  help.  It  matters  not  at  all 
whether  they  are  worthy  or  unworthy  —  unless 
it  be  that  the  unworthy  have  the  stronger  claim ; 
it  was  the  unworthy,  rather  than  the  worthy, 
that  Christ  came  to  call. 

The  care  of  these  destitute  and  dependent 
persons  has  been  generally  relegated  by  the 
churches  to  the  public  authorities  or  the  charity 
organizations.  In  treatises  on  pastoral  theology, 
the  responsibility  of  the  church  for  work  of  this 
kind  has  commonly  been  disclaimed  or  ignored. 
It  is  doubtless  true,  as  we  shall  see,  that  a  large 


THE   CARE   OF  THE   POOR  37 

part  of  this  work  may  be  done  through  the 
cooperation  of  the  church  either  with  other 
churches  or  with  charitable  societies.  But  much 
may  be  done  by  the  local  church,  on  its  own  im- 
pulse, and  without  waiting  for  any.  Indeed,  I 
am  inclined  to  believe  that  if  the  local  churches 
were  alive  to  their  opportunity,  the  greater  part 
of  this  work  would  be  done  by  them,  in  the  best 
possible  way. 

The  thing  for  the  church  to  aim  at  is  to  put 
itself  into  relations  of  personal  friendship  with 
as  many  families  of  this  dependent  class  as  it 
can  reach  and  care  for.  The  aim  of  the  Boston 
Associated  Charities,  as  its  distinguished  presi- 
dent has  told  us  in  a  memorable  phrase,  is  to 
provide  for  every  poor  family  a  friend.  The 
whole  meaning  and  value  of  the  true  charity  is 
in  that  phrase.  And  what  the  Associated  Chari- 
ties thus  proposes  should  be  the  definite  aim  of 
every  Christian  church  —  to  provide  for  every 
poor  family  that  it  can  reach  one  wise,  faithful, 
sympathetic  friend. 

The  acquaintance  of  these  families  is  best 
made  through  some  Sunday-school,  or  sewing- 
school,  into  which  the  children  are  first  gathered. 
If  the  church  is  happily  situated,  as  mine  is,  in 
the  heart  of  the  city  and  in  the  midst  of  a  popu- 
lation needing  ministry  of  this  kind,  then  the 
church  can  call  into  its  own  buildings  the  chil- 


432995 


38  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

dren  of  these  poor  families,  and  make  its  own 
consecrated  temple  a  point  of  attraction  for 
them.  If  the  church  is  not  thus  fortunately 
located,  it  may  be  necessary  for  it  to  find  quar- 
ters for  work  of  this  kind  in  closer  proximity  to 
the  needy  field. 

The  children,  thus  gathered,  are  to  be  consid- 
ered not  mainly  as  subjects  of  Biblical  or  indus- 
trial instruction,  though  that  is  not  to  be  neg- 
lected, but  mainly  as  human  beings  in  need  of 
friendship,  to  whom,  and  to  whose  households, 
this  device  has  opened  the  door.  Some  of  their 
mothers  will  come  with  them,  and  now  and  then 
a  father  will  appear,  leading  his  child  by  the 
hand.  By  this  means  the  church  will  be  able 
to  put  itself  into  direct  relations  with  a  certain 
number  of  families  of  the  very  poor.  For  this 
service  it  will  need  a  volunteer  band  of  friendly 
visitors,  the  most  cultivated,  the  most  wise,  the 
most  consecrated  men  and  women  in  its  mem- 
bership. The  Sunday-school  teachers  cannot 
begin  to  do  this  work;  for  each  Sunday-school 
teacher  or  sewing-school  teacher  may  have  half 
a  dozen  or  a  dozen  families  represented  in  her 
class,  and  the  best  results  are  gained  in  this 
friendly  visiting  when  no  visitor  has  more  than 
one  family  to  care  for.  This  makes  the,  matter 
more  individual:  the  visitor  cannot  have  the 
feeling  that  she  is  doing  wholesale  work,  —  that 


THE   CARE   OF   THE   POOR  39 

she  is  dealing  with  a  class;  she  is  simply  the 
friend  of  this  family;  the  relation  between  her- 
self and  them  is  more  apt  to  become  what  it 
ought  to  be,  a  strictly  personal  relation.  I  am 
using  the  feminine  pronouns,  because  they  are 
likely  to  be  more  frequently  applicable ;  but  this 
work  ought  not  to  be  confined  to  women;  in 
many  cases  men  can  do  it  quite  as  efficiently, 
and  for  their  own  sakes  the  men  of  the  churches 
ought  to  have  a  large  part  in  it. 

The  purpose  of  this  visitation  should  be  kept 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  lines  of  ordinary 
almsgiving.  Cases  will  arise  in  which  material 
aid  must  be  given,  but  this  is  not  the  main  ob- 
ject, and  should  be  kept  wholly  in  the  back- 
ground. Indeed,  it  will  be  better  if  the  visitor 
contrive  to  have  such  aid,  when  it  is  needed, 
reach  the  family  through  other  hands  than  his 
own.  He  wants  to  be  a  friend,  more  than  an 
almoner.  If  the  cause  of  the  poverty  is  lack 
of  employment,  or  incapacity,  or  discourage- 
ment, or  what  we  might  call  moral  prostration, 
—  which  is,  I  fear,  a  prevalent  malady,  —  their 
deepest  need  is  spiritual,  not  material;  they 
want  friendship  even  more  than  food  and  coal; 
they  must  be  helped  to  get  on  their  feet  and 
support  themselves;  work  must  be  found  for 
them ;  their  hope  and  self-respect  must  be  stim- 
ulated; the  door  of  opportunity  must  be  opened 
and  held  open  before  them. 


40  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

This  work  of  the  friendly  visitor  is  the  hearl 
and  life  of  all  the  most  intelligent  charity  of  this 
day.  The  organized  charities  have  learned  to 
emphasize  it  and  rely  upon  it;  the  best  forms 
of  state  aid,  as,  for  example,  those  which  prevail 
in  the  German  cities,  make  it  fundamental. 
The  one  thing  needful  in  all  these  efforts  to  res- 
cue and  elevate  the  dependent  classes  is  the 
touch  of  life  upon  life,  the  awakening  of  hope 
and  courage,  the  invigoration  of  character.  The 
high  calling  of  the  charity-worker  is  nothing 
less  than  the  salvation  of  souls  —  that  is,  of  men 
and  women  and  children  —  for  these  are  the 
only  souls  we  know.  To  save  a  soul  from  ruin 
is  simply  to  save  a  man  or  woman  from  ruin ; 
and  the  character  is  the  thing  to  be  saved.  The 
mere  relief  of  physical  suffering  or  want  which 
does  not  have  the  effect  to  restore  and  strengthen 
the  manhood  and  womanhood  is  a  superficial 
and  temporary  service.  "It  may  appear,"  says 
Mr.  Alfred  T.  White  of  Brooklyn,  a  wise  and 
devoted  laborer  in  this  great  field,  "a  slow  pro- 
cess to  eliminate  poverty  piece  by  piece  from 
our  great  cities,  and  it  is  natural  to  long  for 
some  quicker  way;  but  there  is  no  way  which 
does  not  reach  to  and  touch  the  character  of  the 
individual  poor."1 

If  such  is  the  essential  character  of  the  best 
1  Charities  Review,  April,  1893. 


THE   CARE   OF  THE   POOR  41 

work  for  the  dependent  classes,  then  the  field  is 
certainly  wide  open  to  the  local  church  in  every 
community.  The  less  machinery  and  organiza- 
tion there  is  connected  with  it,  the  better.  It 
is  a  work  which  calls  for  no  constitution  and 
by-laws,  no  minutes,  no  public  meetings,  no 
reports.  You  must  find  some  discreet,  large- 
hearted  man  or  woman  who  will  take  charge  of 
it,  keeping  a  list  of  the  families  who  need 
friends,  and  finding  for  each  the  friend  who 
appears  to  be  best  adapted  to  this  particular  case. 
That  is  all  there  is  to  do.  Friendship  is  not  a 
matter  of  rules  and  regulations;  this  ambassa- 
dor of  good-will  must  be  permitted  to  find  his 
own  way  into  the  confidence  of  the  household 
thus  committed  to  him,  and  must  develop  his 
friendship  along  individual  lines.  It  might  be 
well  to  put  into  the  hands  of  each  of  these  visit- 
ors some  brief  statement  of  the  nature  of  the 
work  like  that  published  by  the  Brooklyn  Bureau 
of  Charities :  — 

"It  shall  be  the  duty  of  a  friendly  visitor  to 
visit  the  poor  and  distressed  as  a  friend ;  to  ex- 
amine, in  the  spirit  of  kindness,  the  causes  of 
their  trouble ;  to  do  what  can  be  done  to  remove 
those  causes;  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
ability  which  each  may  have,  and  to  aid  in  de- 
veloping it  and  in  finding  ways  in  which  it  may 
be  employed  in  self-help;  through  friendly  in- 


42  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

tercourse,  sympathy,  and  direction  to  encourage 
self-dependence,  industry,  and  thrift;  to  recom- 
mend whatever  may  be  possible  and  wist.'  t<>  alle- 
viate the  sufferings  of  those  whose  infirmities 
cannot  be  cured  or  removed;  if  material  aid  l>e 
necessary,  to  obtain  it  from  existing  organiza- 
tions as  far  as  possible;  and  in  every  case  to 
promote  in  all  practical  ways  the  physical  and 
moral  improvement  of  the  families  in  the  visit- 
or's charge." 

The  member  of  the  church  who  is  superin- 
tending this  work  should  watch  to  see  that  the 
visitors  are  keeping  in  contact  with  the  families 
intrusted  to  them ;  and  there  may  be  occasional 
private  consultations  and  conferences  among  the 
visitors  respecting  the  problems  which  arise; 
but  there  should  be  no  public  statements  con- 
cerning their  work;  your  friend  does  not  go 
into  a  public  meeting  and  recite  what  lie  knows 
about  your  personal  and  family  affairs. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  work  of  this 
kind  will  not  all  be  well  done.  No  kind  of 
work  that  we  attempt  is  uniformly  well  done. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  bungling  and  blun- 
dering and  shirking   in  our  best  organizations. 

o  o  o 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  poor  preaching,  and 
poor  pastoral  administration,  and  poor  Sunday- 
school  teaching,  and  poor  financial  management; 
the  defects  and  failures  of  our  best  endeavors 


THE   CARE   OF  THE   POOR  43 

are  always  in  sight.  This  kind  of  work  requires 
greater  wisdom,  truer  insight,  finer  character, 
than  almost  anything  else  that  we  attempt,  and 
it  goes  without  saying  that  there  will  be  many 
cases  in  which  it  will  prove  a  failure  or  a  very 
indifferent  success.  Some  of  these  visitors  will 
lack  the  sympathy,  the  tact,  the  courage  need- 
ful for  their  delicate  business,  and  they  will 
sooner  or  later  abandon  it,  with  pessimistic  con- 
clusions as  to  the  possibility  of  doing  any  good 
to  the  poor.  But  there  will  be  others  who  will 
persevere  and  succeed;  who  will  learn  how, 
without  violating  the  personality  of  those  to 
whom  they  go,  to  establish  confidential  and 
helpful  relations  with  them,  and  the  gains  of 
these  friendships  will  not  all  be  on  the  side  of 
the  visited. 

With  families  which  are  in  this  relation  to 
the  church  much  can  be  done  to  enlarge  and 
brighten  life.  I  know  one  church  in  which 
there  are  thirty  or  forty  friendly  visitors,  each 
with  her  single  family ;  and  once  a  month  the 
visitors  and  the  mothers  of  these  families  meet 
in  the  parlors  of  the  church  for  a  social  after- 
noon, drinking  a  cup  of  tea  together  and  listen  - 
ing  to  a  familiar  talk  from  some  woman  physi- 
cian on  health,  or  on  the  care  of  children,  or  on 
the  preparation  of  food  for  the  sick;  or  enjoy- 
ing the  recital  of  some  one's  experiences  of  travel, 


44  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

or  the  reading  of  a  story  or  a  poem.  Every 
other  week,  through  the  winter  season,  the  same 
church  offers  in  its  chapel  a  free  popular  enter- 
tainment consisting  of  elementary  lectures  on 
science,  with  experiments;  or  a  lantern  exhibi- 
tion; or  a  practical  talk  about  life,  — all  enliv- 
ened by  the  best  music.  These  entertainments 
are  crowded  by  the  older  children  of  the  Sun- 
day-school and  the  sewing-school,  with  a  goodly 
number  of  their  parents  and  older  brothers  and 
sisters  and  neighbors. 

Thus  does  the  church  reach  out,  with  human- 
izing and  helpful  influences,  into  the  lives  of 
those  who  are  most  in  need  of  the  grace  that 
bringeth  salvation.  And  I  can  think  of  no 
reason  why  work  of  this  kind  should  not  be 
undertaken,  immediately,  by  every  Christian 
church.  Certainly  it  is  the  kind  of  work  that 
our  Lord  would  be  doing  if  he  were  here ;  and 
any  group  of  disciples  who  are  in  close  sympa- 
thy with  him  will  find  in  their  hearts  an  imme- 
diate and  irresistible  desire  to  engage  in  service 
of  this  kind. 

Doubtless  many  churches  shrink  from  the 
thought  of  ministering  to  the  poor  because  they 
are  financially  weak;  it  is  difficult  for  them  to 
meet  their  current  expenses,  and  they  think 
that  they  have  no  funds  which  could  be  used  in 
such  ministration.     But   it  should  be  remem- 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  45 

bered  that  the  kind  of  work  here  proposed  does 
not  involve  any  large  expenditure.  There  are 
exceptional  cases  in  which  the  visitor  will  need 
a  little  money  or  some  form  of  material  aid, 
but  that  can  be  obtained.  If  the  visitor  herself 
is  not  able  to  furnish  it,  she  can  find  some  one 
in  the  neighborhood  who  is  both  able  and  will- 
ing. There  are  few  American  communities  in 
which  supplies  may  not  be  promptly  and  easily 
found  for  any  well-attested  cases  of  need.  There 
are  multitudes  of  men  and  women  who  are  more 
than  willing  to  give,  if  they  can  be  assured  that 
their  gifts  will  relieve  suffering.  The  visitor 
who  can  bring  any  case  of  real  destitution  to 
the  notice  of  some  benevolent  individual  is  in 
that  way  rendering  a  real  service  to  him  that 
gives  as  well  as  to  him  that  receives.  The 
church  does  not,  then,  need  to  provide  any  con- 
siderable fund  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  when 
it  enters  upon  work  of  this  kind.  The  existence 
of  such  a  fund  would  be  an  embarrassment 
rather  than  an  aid  to  its  work.  It  is  friendship, 
not  alms,  that  it  is  undertaking  to  dispense; 
and  no  church  is  so  poor  that  it  cannot  offer 
friendship  to  some  of  the  friendless  who  live 
within  its  reach.  In  truth,  the  most  efficient 
aid  which  is  given  to  the  poor  comes  from  those 
who  themselves  are  poor.  The  sympathy  and 
helpfulness  which  are  always  found  among  these 
lowly  neighbors  are  beautiful  to  see. 


46  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

The  fact  that  the  revenues  of  a  church  are 
not  large  is  not,  then,  a  good  reason  why  it 
should  hesitate  to  commission  and  send  forth 
a  group  of  friendly  visitors.  It  may  be  well 
to  remember  that  the  first  company  which  went 
forth  on  an  errand  of  this  nature  consisted 
wholly  of  poor  men,  and  that  He  who  sent  them 
forth  was  no  richer  than  they. 

If  all  our  Christian  churches  should  accept 
this  as  part  of  their  mission  —  to  put  them- 
selves in  communication  with  as  many  needy 
families,  outside  their  own  membership,  as 
they  could  find  and  wisely  care  for,  I  think  that 
the  problem  of  relief  for  the  outside  poor  — 
for  those  who  should  be  cared  for  in  their 
homes,  rather  than  in  institutions  —  would  be 
promptly  solved.  There  are  few  American  com- 
munities in  which  the  churches  are  not  numer- 
ous enough  and  strong  enough  to  do  this  work 
without  any  serious  effort. 

In  the  country  at  large  there  is  about  one 
church  to  every  four  hundred  and  twenty-five 
of  the  population.  Except  in  the  great  indus- 
trial depressions,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  an 
American  community  in  which  six  per  cent,  of 
the  population  were  dependent.  If  the  average 
church  is  responsible  for  four  hundred  and 
twenty-five  of  the  population,  six  per  cent,  of 
that  number  would  be  about  twenty-five  per- 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  47 

sons,  or,  perhaps,  five  families.  The  average 
church  could  undertake  that  amount  of  care, 
with  no  strain  upon  its  resources.  Nay,  such 
an  undertaking,  in  most  cases,  would  replenish 
and  invigorate  its  life,  in  every  way;  would 
mightily  strengthen  its  hold  upon  the  commu- 
nity ;  would  give  it  a  reason  for  its  life  which 
now  it  often  lacks. 

If,  however,  the  churches  generally  should 
take  up  work  of  this  kind,  it  would  at  once  be 
necessary  for  them  to  come  to  some  understand- 
ing with  one  another  about  it.  They  would 
soon  be  crossing  one  another's  tracks  and  dupli- 
cating one  another's  work.  It  would  be  need- 
ful that  they  should  divide  up  the  field  among 
them,  assigning  to  each  church  a  definite  dis- 
trict, in  which  it  should  be  responsible  for  the 
care  of  its  own  poor,  and  of  all  poor  families 
not  belonging  to  other  congregations. 

This  seems  to  me  the  ideal  way  of  taking  care 
of  the  poor.  I  believe  that  the  churches  could 
do  the  work ;  that  it  would  not  greatly  tax  their 
resources,  if  they  did  it  in  the  right  way ;  that 
it  would  deepen  and  strengthen  their  Christian 
life;  that  it  would  do  more  to  shut  the  mouths 
of  cavilers  than  all  the  arguments  of  all  the 
apologists;  that  it  would  help  to  solve  the  ques- 
tion of  reaching  the  churchless;  that  it  would 
marvelously  extend  the  influence  and  the  use- 
fulness of  the  churches. 


48  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

I  trust,  therefore,  my  brethren,  that  you  will 
keep  this  before  you,  in  all  your  ministry,  as 
the  ideal  method  of  caring  for  those  of  the  poor 
who  can  be  best  assisted  in  their  own  homes, 
It  may  be  a  good  while  before  we  shall  get  the 
churches  generally  to  accept  this  responsibility 
and  to  cooperate  in  bearing  it;  but  I  believe 
that  the  time  will  come,  and  it  may  be  nearer 
than  wc  think.  The  deplorable  inefficiency  of 
most  of  the  existing  methods  of  public  outdoor 
relief;  the  too  obvious  fact  that  by  what  we 
miscall  charity  multitudes  are  pauperized;  the 
fearful  losses  of  character  and  manhood  that  we 
are  suffering  in  this  way,  must  at  length  bring 
home  to  the  churches  their  duty  in  this  matter. 
And  the  churches  may  be  able  to  see  that  they 
need  the  work  quite  as  much  as  the  work  needs 
them ;  that  they  can  only  save  their  own  life  by 
losing  it  in  such  ministry  as  this. 

In  some  of  our  cities  serious  attempts  have 
been  made  to  work  along  this  line.  The  most 
persistent  and  successful  of  these  of  which  I 
have  known  is  in  Buffalo.  The  churches  there 
have  undertaken  to  divide  the  entire  city  among 
themselves,  and  to  assign  to  each  church  a  dis- 
trict, for  the  poor  families  of  which  it  shall  hold 
itself  responsible.1  Some  smaller  communities 
have  adopted  substantially  the  same  plan.  Pos- 
1   The  Christian  Pas/or.  p.  467,  seq. 


THE  CARE  OF  THE   POOR  49 

sibly  the  movements  toward  church  federation 
which  are  now  going  forward,  in  various  parts 
of  the  country,  with  considerable  promise,  may 
come  to  include  this  practical  endeavor.  I  hope 
that  many  of  you  will  live  long  enough  to  take 
part  in  a  successful  prosecution  of  some  such 
enterprise. 

But  you  may  find  it  wise  to  content  your- 
selves at  the  outset  with  methods  which  come 
short  of  this  ideal.  In  the  communities  where 
you  are  called  to  labor,  it  may  not  be  possible 
at  once  to  revolutionize  the  methods  of  poor 
relief.  You  are  likely  to  find  in  the  larger 
places  a  variety  of  agencies  already  at  work  in 
this  field.  Societies  for  the  collection  and  distri- 
bution of  charitable  relief  exist  in  most  of  our 
cities;  and  there  are  soldiers'  aid  societies  and 
beneficial  organizations  of  various  names,  as  well 
as  churches,  engaged  in  the  same  enterprise. 
Cooperation  of  all  these  agencies  is  greatly  to 
be  desired.  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
that  all  the  charitable  organizations  at  work  in 
a  given  community  should  not  only  have  a  good 
understanding  among  themselves,  but  that  each 
should  have  some  knowledge  of  what  the  others 
are  doing,  and  that  all  should  unite  upon  cer- 
tain principles  of  administration.  If  they  work 
independently,  the  shiftless  and  unscrupulous 
will  make  themselves  the  beneficiaries  of  several 


50  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

of  them  at  once,  and  they  will  breed  imposture 
and  pauperism.  It  is  absolutely  accessary  that 
the  charitable  forces  be  united  to  prevent  the 
propagation  of  pauperism. 

In  many  places  you  will  find  the  charities 
thus  organized,  and  you  ought  to  give  that 
enterprise  your  hearty  and  intelligent  support. 
These  charity  organization  societies  do  not  re- 
ceive, in  any  community,  the  support  they  de- 
serve; in  the  minds  of  many  sentimental  people 
there  is  much  prejudice  against  them.  They  are 
sometimes  sneeringly  called  "societies  for  the 
prevention  of  charity/'  and  it  is,  indeed,  an 
important  part  of  their  work  to  prevent  a 
great  deal  of  miscalled  charity.  The  amount  of 
injury  which  is  done  by  careless  almsgiving  is 
a 1 1] Killing.  The  great  majority  of  our  Christian 
people  look  no  further  than  the  immediate  relief 
of  what  seems  to  them  suffering  or  need;  their 
sensibilities  are  touched  by  a  child  in  rags  or 
a  tale  of  woe ;  a  gift  of  money  or  food  or  fuel 
alleviates  their  own  personal  discomfort  and 
makes  them  feel  virtuous,  and  thus  by  a  dole 
they  relieve  themselves  without  thinking  or  car- 
ing much  of  what  becomes  of  the  receiver.  The 
fact  that  they  may  be  encouraging  a  man  to  be- 
come a  beggar,  or  leading  a  child  into  the  ways 
of  ruin,  does  not  greatly  trouble  them.  What 
we  call  our  charity  is  often  the  expression  of 


THE  CARE   OF  THE  POOR  51 

one  of  the  subtlest  and  most  mischievous  forms 
of  selfishness. 

You  are  likely  to  find,  in  the  churches  to 
which  you  will  go,  a  good  many  people  who 
need  to  be  educated  out  of  these  sentimental 
notions  about  charity,  and  to  be  made  to  under- 
stand the  principles  upon  which  the  work  of 
charity  organizations  is  carried  on.  These  prin- 
ciples are,  as  I  believe,  for  the  most  part,  not 
only  sound  and  expedient,  they  are  thoroughly 
Christian.  There  may  have  been,  in  the  ear- 
lier days,  a  little  too  much  emphasis  on  the 
prevention  of  imposture  and  pauperism,  but 
that  disproportion,  if  it  ever  existed,  has  dis- 
appeared; whatever  severities  are  practiced  in 
these  methods  of  administration  are  the  severi- 
ties of  a  genuine  love.  The  reason  why  modern 
charity-workers  are  so  careful  about  the  bestow- 
ment  of  material  aid  is  that  they  value  so 
highly  the  real  welfare  of  those  with  whom  they 
are  dealing.  They  know  that  suffering  is  a  far 
less  evil  than  moral  deterioration ;  they  would 
choose  for  themselves  hunger  or  cold  rather 
than  the  spirit  of  a  mendicant ;  and  it  is  because 
they  love  their  neighbors  as  themselves  that 
they  make  the  same  choice  for  them. 

This  principle  does  not  relieve  the  charity- 
worker  of  responsibility  or  labor ;  it  adds  to  his 
load  and  doubles  his  task.     It  is  an  easy  thing 


SOCIAL    SALVATION 

to  telephone  your  grocer  to  send  a  little  Hour 
and  rice  :m<l  ham  and  Bugar  and  tea  to  the  Btreet 
number  from  which  Borne  suppliant  for  aid  has 
come  to  your  door;  it  is  a  very  different  thing 
to  go  over  there,  and  get  acquainted  with  that 
family,  and  find  out  all  about  their  condition 
and  their  needs,  and  the  causes  of  their  present 
destitution,  to  find  work  for  those  who  can 
work,  to  awaken  and  strengthen  the  purpose  of 
self-help,  and  having  got  them  on  their  feet,  to 
stand  by  them  and  cheer  them  on,  and  stimulate 
in  every  way  their  courage  and  independence. 
To  such  painstaking  service  as  this  the  modern 
charity-worker  is  pledged,  and  it  takes  time  and 
thought  and  love  and  long-suffering  patience. 
He  does  not  cavil  at  the  command  of  Jesus, 
"Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him 
that  would  borrow  of  thee,  turn  not  thou  away ;  " 
he  accepts  the  word,  without  reserve,  and  means 
to  obey  it.  But  he  does  not  understand  that 
command  to  mean  that  we  must  give,  in  all  cases, 
the  specific  thing  asked  for.  If  a  man  asks  for 
poison,  or  for  a  murderous  weapon,  or  for  a 
pure  young  life  that  he  may  pollute  it,  we  are 
not  to  give  the  thing  he  craves.  If  he  asks  for 
money,  and  we  are  morally  certain  that  he  will 
use  the  money  to  degrade  himself,  we  are  not 
warranted  by  the  command  of  Jesus  in  giving 
him  the  money.     But  if  a  man  asks  us  to  help 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  53 

him,  and  we  can  see  that  he  needs  anything  that 
we  are  able  to  give  him,  we  are  pledged  to  sup- 
ply that  need.  His  appeal  to  us  warrants  our 
interposition  in  his  behalf.  He  has  confessed 
that  he  needs  our  friendship,  and  we  have  a 
right  to  take  him  at  his  word.  Our  friendship 
he  shall  have,  and  we  will  do  our  best  to  make 
it  a  wise  and  saving  friendship.  The  things 
that  he  really  needs  are  the  things  that  we  will 
try  to  provide  for  him;  they  may  not  be  the 
things  which  he  craves ;  but  it  is  to  needs,  not 
to  cravings,  that  we  are  called  to  minister. 

These  are  the  principles  on  which  the  modern 
charity  is  building.  They  are,  as  I  have  said, 
distinctively  Christian  principles.  They  involve 
what  is  central  in  Christianity  —  a  supreme  val- 
uation of  character;  a  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  physical  suffering  is  a  far  less  evil  than 
moral  degradation.  There  are  a  good  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  in  all  our 
churches  who  have,  as  yet,  very  feebly  compre- 
hended these  principles.  There  is  need  of  much 
education  by  the  pulpit  along  this  line.  The 
genuinely  Christian  work  of  the  charity  organi- 
zation visitors  is  often  greatly  crippled  by  the 
heedless  almsgiving  of  lazy  church  members 
who  feed  tramps  and  give  doles  to  beggars.  An 
important  part  of  your  work  will  be  to  get  a 
little  more  intelligence  into  the  heads  and   a 


54  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

little  more  conscience  into  the  hearts  of  these 
sentimentalists ;  t<>  show  them  what  the  Chris- 
tian law  requires  them  to  do  to  the  neighbor 
who  appeals  to  them  for  aid;  and  to  bring  them 
into  a  hearty  cooperation  with  those  who  are 
working  not  merely  to  relieve  immediate  want, 
but  to  save  men  and  women. 

Those  members  of  your  congregation  who  are 
themselves  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  friendly 
visitor  will,  of  course,  be  instructed  in  these 
things ;  but  it  is  highly  important  that  the  whole 
congregation  be  brought  into  sympathy  and  co- 
operation with  efforts  which  are  made  for  the 
systematic  and  intelligent  administration  of  the 
charities  of  the  entire  community.  The  friendly 
visitor  of  the  church  is  doing  exactly  the  same 
kind  of  work  that  the  charity  organization  soci- 
ety is  doing.  The  friendly  visitor  is  the  right 
arm  of  the  charity  organization  society.  Some 
of  the  members  of  your  churches  may  be  work- 
ing under  that  society,  and  the  methods  of  both 
should  be  essentially  the  same. 

Let  me  repeat,  that  the  ideal  organization 
of  charity  would  be  a  compact  union  of  all 
the  Christian  churches  in  every  community, 
covering  the  entire  field  and  making  all  other 
agencies  for  the  care  of  the  outside  poor  unne- 
cessary. Until  this  is  accomplished,  charity 
organization  societies  are  necessary  to  unite  and 


THE  CARE   OF  THE   POOR  55 

direct  the  various  agencies  occupying  the  field. 
With  these  organizations  you  should  bring  your 
church  into  hearty  sympathy  and  cooperation; 
lending  your  members  for  its  service,  since  it 
supplements  the  work  which  your  church  is 
doing.  Your  church  should,  however,  at  the 
same  time,  keep  itself  in  vital  touch  with  the 
poor  families  of  its  neighborhood  by  its  own 
corps  of  friendly  visitors. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  fact  that  the  needs  of 
the  poor  are  in  part  supplied  by  public  relief, 
dispensed  by  the  town  or  the  city  or  the  county. 
This  is  of  two  kinds  —  indoor  and  outdoor  re- 
lief. 

Those  who  are  permanently  disabled  and  help- 
less, and  who  have  no  friends  to  whose  care 
they  may  rightfully  be  committed,  must  be  pro- 
vided with  homes  in  the  almshouses  and  infirma- 
ries. The  children  of  broken  families,  in  some 
of  our  states,  are  cared  for  in  children's  homes 
until  other  homes  can  be  found  for  them,  and 
this  is  a  most  wise  and  benign  provision,  for 
children  should  never  be  mixed  with  the  adult 
paupers  of  an  almshouse.  For  these  institutions 
the  state  must  needs  provide;  but  the  Christian 
people  of  every  community  ought  to  keep  vigi- 
lant watch  over  them,  to  see  that  they  are  well 
governed.  Indoor  relief  is  the  business  of  the 
state ;  the  relation  of  the  pulpit  and  the  church 


66  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

to  thai  La  Bimply  that  of  careful  supervision,  to 
Bee  that  the  business  is  well  done. 

With  those  who  arc  in  temporary  straits  be- 
oause  <>f  Biokness  or  misfortune,  ami  who  should 
be  eared  tor  in  their  own  homes,  the  case  is  some- 
what different.  It  is  generally  admitted  in 
Christian  countries  that  the  state  is  under  obli- 
gation to  provide  for  such  need;  the  laws  recog- 
nize this  obligation;  part  of  the  money  raised 
by  taxation  is  devoted  to  the  relief  of  those  tem- 
porarily in  distress.  The  motive  is  humane. 
The  incorporation  in  our  law  of  the  principle 
of  brotherly  kindness  is  a  sign  of  the  progress  of 
the  kingdom.  But,  in  practice,  this  method  of 
public  outdoor  relief  has  not  been  working  very 
well  in  this  country.  In  the  smaller  commu- 
nities its  failure  is  less  notable;  in  the  larger 
towns  and  cities  the  abuses  connected  with  it 
outweigh  its  benefits.  The  investigation  of 
cases  applying  for  aid  is  wholly  inadequate ;  the 
idle  and  the  thriftless  and  the  vicious  learn  to 
depend  upon  it  and  are  degraded  by  it;  it  is 
used,  not  seldom,  by  unscrupulous  officials,  a-  a 
means  of  controlling  votes.  The  evils  arising 
from  the  distribution  of  legal  outdoor  relief  are 
often  very  grave. 

In  Germany  this  does  not  appear  to  be  the 
case.  In  all  the  German  cities  the  work  is  thor- 
oughly systematized;  the  cities  are  divided  into 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  57 

small  districts,  in  each  of  which  several  of  the 
most  respectable  and  responsible  men  and  wo- 
men are  appointed  and  required  to  serve  as  vis- 
itors, so  that  the  work  of  investigation  and  relief 
is  done  under  the  supervision  of  the  public  au- 
thorities with  great  care  and  thoroughness.  In 
Berlin,  for  example,  something  like  three  thou- 
sand of  the  best  citizens  are  employed  as  visitors 
of  the  poor.  They  receive  no  remuneration,  but 
they  are  not  permitted  to  decline  such  service; 
they  accept  it  as  one  of  their  public  obligations. 
If  we  could  hope  to  get  this  kind  of  work  done 
gratuitously  and  faithfully  by  Americans,  the 
legal  outdoor  relief  of  the  poor  would  be  a  sim- 
ple problem.  But  that,  I  fear,  would  be  a  vi- 
sionary expectation.  In  my  own  city  of  125,000 
people,  one  man,  who  gives  part  of  his  time  to 
the  business,  and  receives  a  salary  of  $60  a 
month,  is  expected  to  do  the  entire  work  of  in- 
vestigation —  the  cases  on  which  he  must  decide 
including  two  or  three  thousand  families  every 
year.  It  is  evident  that  funds  administered  in 
this  way  will  be  worse  than  wasted. 

What  is  to  be  desired  is  either  that  the  city 
should  abandon  the  work  of  outdoor  relief, 
leaving  it  to  the  voluntary  agencies,  or  else  that 
it  should  enter  into  a  close  cooperation  with 
these  voluntary  agencies,  employing  them  to  do 
the  work  of  investigation,  and  administering  its 
relief  on  their  recommendation. 


58  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

In  quite  a   number  of  our   most   important 
American  cities,   -  New  York.  Philadelphia,  and 

Baltimore  among  them, — the  work  of  legal 
outdoor  relief  has  been  wholly  abandoned.  It 
may  be  supposed  that  this  would  have  the  effect 
to  increase  the  number  seeking  refuge  in  the 
almshouses.  The  contrary  seems  to  be  the 
case.  When  Brooklyn,  several  years  ago,  cut 
off  legal  outdoor  relief,  the  number  of  persons 
in  the  almshouses  decreased,  instead  of  increas- 
ing. The  outdoor  relief,  as  administered,  was 
encouraging  pauperism,  was  breeding  paupers, 
in  fact ;  when  the  city  stopped  that  bad  business, 
one  of  the  sources  from  which  her  almshouses 
were  supplied  with  their  permanent  population 
was  dried  up.  The  people  who  were  learning 
to  depend  on  charity  were  compelled  to  look 
out  for  themselves,  and  the  habit  of  self-help  to 
which  they  were  coerced  kept  them  out  of  the 
poorhouse. 

It  is,  however,  difficult  to  bring  many  of  our 
cities  to  the  point  of  cutting  off  outdoor  relief, 
and  it  is  not  always  the  case  that  the  voluntary 
charities  are  so  well  organized  that  they  could 
efficiently  care  for  all  the  poor  who  need  relief 
in  their  homes.  But  it  is  possible,  in  many 
cases,  to  bring  about  a  cooperation  between  the 
charity  organization  society  and  the  town  or 
city  authorities,  so  that  the  city  shall  make  use 


THE  CARE  OF  THE  POOR  59 

of  the  voluntary  agency  in  making  its  investiga- 
tions, and  shall  thus  be  enabled  to  do  its  work 
more  intelligently  and  with  less  injury  to  the 
community.  In  Ohio  the  law  now  permits  the 
officers  having  the  distribution  of  the  poor  funds 
to  employ  the  officers  of  the  charity  organization 
societies  as  their  agents,  and  to  govern  them- 
selves in  dispensing  aid  by  the  advice  so  given. 
This  was  done,  whether  with  or  without  legal 
authorization  I  do  not  know,  in  the  city  of 
Springfield,  Massachusetts,  when  I  was  living 
there;  and  the  result  was  not  only  a  great  re- 
duction in  the  cost  of  outdoor  relief  to  the  city, 
but  a  manifest  decrease  in  the  amount  of  pov- 
erty and  beggary.  No  really  needy  cases  were 
neglected,  and  a  great  multitude  of  idlers  and 
shirkers  were  compelled  to  go  to  work.  When 
the  charity  organization  is  efficient  and  the  over- 
seers of  the  poor  are  reasonable,  such  a  cooper- 
ation can  be  brought  about  with  great  gains  of 
economy,  of  thrift,  and  of  morality.  It  is  one 
of  the  subjects  concerning  which  every  Chris- 
tian minister,  as  a  leader  of  public  opinion, 
ought  to  keep  himself  well  informed,  and  one  of 
the  ends  which,  wherever  it  is  practicable,  he 
should  endeavor  to  secure. 

In  considering  the  relief  of  the  poor  in  their 
homes,  therefore,  the  thing  to  be  aimed  at  is 
the  transfer  of  this  work  as  rapidly  as  possible, 


GO  social  SALTATION 

and  to  as  great  an  extent  as  is  possible,  from 
the   public  authorities  to   voluntary  agencies  — 

either   to  churches  or  to  organized   charities. 

The  reason  is  that  the  public  authorities  in  this 
country,  even  when  their  intentions  are  good, 
are  so  few  that  they  cannot  adequately  perform 
the  work,  and  that  it  is  a  kind  of  work  which 
cannot  be  well  performed  by  state  officials.  It 
is  a  work,  the  very  heart  of  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  friendship.  It  can  be  well  done  only 
by  those  who  have  a  deep  and  strong  sense  of 
s] i i ritual  values,  of  the  supreme  importance  of 
character.  It  is  essentially  a  work  of  redemp- 
tion, and  it  calls  for  love  and  service  and  sacri- 
fice. May  God  help  us  all  to  see  how  much 
there  is  for  us  to  do  in  our  ministry,  in  filling 
up  that  which  is  lacking  of  the  afflictions  of 
Christ,  and  in  seeking  and  saving  the  lost. 


Ill 

THE   STATE   AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED 

We  have  considered  the  importance  of  ex- 
tending and  strengthening  the  voluntary  agen- 
cies for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  of  transfer- 
ring to  these  agencies,  so  far  as  possible,  the 
work  now  done  for  the  outside  poor  by  the  state. 
There  remains,  however,  a  work  for  the  state 
to  do,  outside  its  almshouses  and  its  children's 
homes,  in  dealing  with  the  problem  of  poverty. 
There  is  a  certain  important  work  to  be  done 
which  no  voluntary  organization  can  succeed  in 
doing,  —  a  work  which  requires  the  exercise  of 
the  power  of  the  state. 

We  have,  to  begin  with,  periods  of  depres- 
sion more  or  less  regularly  occurring,  in  which 
a  large  proportion  of  the  population  is  out  of 
work.  These  industrial  crises  are  sometimes 
supposed  to  be  mysterious  visitations  of  Provi- 
dence, and  they  are  sometimes  charged  upon 
the  political  party  which  happens  to  be  in 
power,  but  I  do  not  think  that  either  Provi- 
dence or  the  politicians  should  bear  the  blame. 


62  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

The  explanation  is  probably  very  simple.  So 
long  as  tin-  credit  system  exists  and  human 
nature  is  what  it  now  is,  everybody  will  borrow 
of  everybody  else,  and  live  on  what  he  borrows. 
Thus  credit  is  more  and  more  extended,  until 
some  of  the  more  cautious  begin  to  take  alarm, 
and  to  demand  payment.  The  retail  merchants 
send  out  bills  to  their  customers  and  press  for 
payment,  and  the  customers,  because  they  can- 
not pay,  stop  buying.  The  merchants  must 
therefore  stop  ordering  from  the  jobbers,  and 
the  jobbers  from  the  manufacturers,  and  the 
mill  wheels  stop  and  the  men  are  out  of  work, 
and  the  great  commercial  wheel  ceases  its  revo- 
lutions. It  is  not  started  again  until  a  great 
many  of  the  debts  owed  by  everybody  to  every- 
body are  canceled,  and  there  is  a  tremendous 
shrinkage  in  the  nominal  wealth  of  the  nation. 

Whatever  may  be  the  causes  of  these  depres- 
sions, they  return,  periodically,  and  while  they 
last  there  is  much  suffering.  In  such  emergen- 
cies it  is  generally  felt  that  private  charity  is 
inadequate,  and  that  the  state  must  come  to  the 
rescue.  I  am  not  inclined  to  dispute  this  con- 
tention, yet  even  in  such  times  I  believe  that 
the  good-will  of  good  men  and  women,  if  it  were 
loused  to  action,  could  greatly  reduce  the  need 
of  public  intervention.  It  is  far  better  that  re- 
lief come  through  individual  initiative;  a  loan, 


THE   STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED    63 

at  low  rates  of  interest,  proffered  to  an  indus- 
trious man  by  one  who  knows  him  well  and  can 
trust  him,  would  often  be  a  wise  beneficence. 
But  better  than  this  is  the  provision  of  work 
which  can  often  be  made  by  individuals  who 
have  a  surplus  which  they  might  employ  as 
wages.  There  are  always,  in  such  times,  indi- 
viduals who  have  a  little  money  and  much  good- 
will, and  who  feel  called  upon  to  give  liberally 
to  the  relief  funds  to  be  administered  by  certain 
charities.  It  would  be  better  if  they  would 
begin  some  enterprise  of  repair  or  improvement 
upon  their  houses  or  their  grounds  and  would 
set  idle  men  at  work  upon  it,  paying  out  as 
wages  what  they  intend  to  give  in  charity.  If 
the  work  is  not  greatly  needed,  it  will  be  a  far 
greater  benefaction  to  furnish  it  than  to  bestow 
alms  upon  idle  laborers.  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  work  is  not  needed,  the  wages  offered 
may  fairly  be  less  than  those  paid  in  flush  times, 
and  the  trade-unions,  in  such  cases,  should 
relax  their  demands.  Thus  there  is  an  economic 
adjustment,  and  the  man  of  good- will  serves 
himself  as  well  as  his  neighbor  by  getting  his 
work  done  more  cheaply  in  the  hard  times.  I 
am  persuaded  that  if  the  attention  of  kind- 
hearted  people  were  called  to  this  matter,  and 
the  efficiency  and  beneficence  of  this  kind  of 
relief  were  brought  home  to  them,  a  great  many 


64  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

private  relief  agencies  <>f  this  sort  would  be  set 
in  operation,  the  effect  of  which  would  be  far 
better  than  that  of  the  ordinary  methods  of 
emergency  relief. 

It  is  a  matter  concerning  which  you  may 
sometimes  he  warranted  in  speaking  from  the 
pulpit.  One  preaches  a  great  many  sermons 
concerning  which  he  never  knows  whether  any 
one  heeds  them  or  not;  but  now  and  then  one 
hears  from  a  sermon,  afterward,  not  merely 
that  somebody  liked  it,  but  that  it  set  somebody 
to  work.  One  or  two  of  the  sermons  from 
which  I  have  thus  heard  were  preached  in  the 
midst  of  such  seasons  of  depression,  setting  forth 
the  value  of  the  kind  of  help  for  the  unemployed 
of  which  I  have  been  speaking.  As  the  result 
of  one  such  sermon,  one  man,  I  remember,  set 
about  building  two  or  three  houses  on  unoc- 
cupied lots;  several  others  made  repairs  or 
improvements,  of  one  sort  or  another,  on  their 
premises;  one  man  started  a  little  business  of 
buying  up  apples  and  potatoes  in  the  country 
and  bringing  them  to  the  city  by  car-loads, 
in  which  he  gave  employment  to  three  or  four 
persons ;  and  quite  a  number  of  others,  who  had 
intended  to  discharge  various  employees,  thought 
better  of  it  and  determined  to  keep  them  and 
pay  them  wages  instead  of  contributing  to  the 
relief  fund  the  amount  which  they  might  have 


THE   STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED    65 

saved  in  the  reduction  of  their  expenditure.  If 
all  Christian  people  were  as  thoughtful  and  con- 
siderate and  mindful  of  their  opportunities 
as  they  ought  to  be  in  such  times,  the  need  of 
public  provision  for  the  unemployed  would  be 
greatly  minimized,  and  many  families  would  be 
kept  from  entering  upon  the  slippery  ways  of 
dependency. 

But,  as  things  are,  it  is  often  true  that  the 
city  or  the  town  must  intervene  for  the  relief  of 
industrious  people  whose  means  of  livelihood 
has  failed  them.  There  are  emergencies  when 
the  resources  of  private  charity  are  inadequate, 
and  when  there  will  be  much  suffering  unless 
the  public  authorities  provide  some  measures  of 
aid  for  the  unemployed.  The  difficulty  in  such 
cases  is  that  many  come  forward  to  claim  the 
aid  thus  provided  who  are  not  honestly  entitled 
to  it,  and  to  whom  it  is  an  injury  rather  than 
a  benefit.  This,  indeed,  is  the  difficulty  which 
constantly  presents  itself  in  the  administration 
of  charity,  both  public  and  private.  In  every 
army  of  the  unemployed  there  is  a  certain  num- 
ber of  the  unemployable,  —  of  men  and  women 
who  are  never  employed,  if  they  can  help  them- 
selves, in  good  times,  and  to  whom  hard  times 
are  a  godsend  because  their  excuse  for  idleness 
cannot  then  be  questioned. 

I  do  not  know  whether  you  are  now  taught, 


66  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

in  this  Beminary,  to  make  a  distinction  between 
natural  inability  and  moral  inability;  thai  dis- 
tinction was  once  familiar,  and  it  is  one  for 
which  the  charity-worker  has  frequenl  use. 
There  is  a  considerable  (lass  of  the  very  poor 
in  all  our  towns  and  cities  whose  inability  to 
work  is  strictly  moral,  it  is  this  class  of  per- 
sons which  presents  the  standing  problem  in  all 
our  efforts  to  help  the  poor.  The  man  who 
does  not  want  to  work,  who  prefers  to  eat  his 
bread  in  the  sweat  of  some  other  man's  (or 
woman's)  brow,  is  not  unknown  to  the  student 
of  sociology. 

The  existence  of  this  class  is,  however,  some- 
times questioned.  There  are  philanthropists 
and  social  reformers  who  maintain  that  the 
people  who  are  out  of  work  are  willing  to  work ; 
that  their  lack  of  employment  is  the  fault  of 
society;  that  under  a  proper  social  system  this 
class  would  disappear  or  cause  no  trouble. 
Those  who  hold  this  view  are,  however,  persons 
who  have  never  come  into  any  close  and  contin- 
uous practical  relations  with  this  class  of  the 
population.  Any  one  who  has  been  dealing  for 
thirty  or  forty  years  with  the  unemployed  has 
learned  some  things  about  them  which  the  social 
theorists  have  never  found  out,  but  which  it  is 
highly  important  for  them  to  know  before  they 
launch  their  millenniums. 


THE   STATE  AND   THE  UNEMPLOYED    67 

By  reflection  upon  the  social  phenomena  with 
which  we  are  all  familiar,  we  might  easily  assure 
ourselves  that  many  of  the  people  in  the  lowest 
social  class  would  avoid  work  if  they  could. 
Is  not  that  the  truth  concerning  many  people 
in  the  upper  social  classes?  Is  there  not  in  all 
circles  a  pretty  large  number  of  those  who  will 
get  their  living  if  they  can  without  exertion,  — ■ 
who  will  shift  their  burdens,  when  they  can,  upon 
other  people's  shoulders?  Those  of  keen  wits 
and  large  opportunities  manage  to  do  this  and 
get  their  living  out  of  society,  sometimes  to  fare 
sumptuously  every  day;  those  of  dull  wits  and 
narrow  opportunities  do  not  succeed  so  well, 
and  their  last  resource  is  the  soup-kitchen  and 
the  free  lodging-house.  But  it  would  be  flying 
in  the  face  of  all  experience  to  insist  that  all 
these  workless  people  are  willing  and  eager  to 
work  —  that  they  lack  only  opportunity ;  if  that 
were  true  of  them,  they  would  be  unlike  every 
other  class  in  society. 

I  am  sure  that  many  of  those  who  are  out  of 
work  would  rather  work  than  beg  or  be  depend- 
ent, just  as  there  are  many  self-respecting  peo- 
ple in  the  more  fortunate  classes  who  would 
rather  earn  their  living  by  honest  labor  than  get 
it  by  tricky  trading  or  sharp  financiering,  or 
professional  philanthropy  or  political  piracy; 
but  we  may,  at  any  rate,  expect  that  the  pro- 


68  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

portion  of  the  shirkers  will  be  as  large  at  the 
bottom  of  the  social  scale  as  in  any  of  the  super- 
incumbent social  layers. 

The  tendency  to  one-sidedness  of  judgment 
always  appears  in  men's  talk  about  this  matter. 
The  strenuous  socialist  is  bound  to  make  out 
that  the  unemployed  are  all  industrious  people, 
willing  to  bear  their  full  share  of  the  burdens 
of  society;  but  he  is  quite  ready  to  believe  that 
the  conduct  of  the  greedy  capitalist  and  the 
soulless  corporation  is  morally  defective,  —  that 
they  are  trying  to  get  their  living  out  of  their 
fellow  men  without  giving  an  adequate  return. 
It  might  occur  to  him  that  selfishness  is  not 
confined  to  the  upper  classes;  that  the  dispo- 
sition to  get  the  good  of  life  without  paying 
for  it  is  quite  apt  to  manifest  itself  among  peo- 
ple who  have  no  capital,  and  that  it  is  a  poor 
philosophy  of  life  which  ignores  or  belittles 
this  stubborn  fact. 

What  we  could  easily  predict  from  our  know- 
ledge of  human  nature  is  abundantly  verified  in 
experience.  The  most  careful  and  thorough 
study  of  the  industrial  conditions  which  has 
ever  been  made  is  that  of  Mr.  Charles  Booth 
of  London;  it  is  based  on  a  house  to  house  in- 
vestigation of  a  large  section  of  that  city,  and 
it  gives  us  a  well-considered  classification  of  the 
inhabitants.     Mr.  Booth  finds  that  the  criminal 


THE   STATE   AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED    69 

class  comprises  about  one  and  a  quarter  per 
cent,  of  the  population;  and  that  the  lowest 
class  of  those  who  are  not  habitual  criminals 
—  those  who  subsist  on  occasional  labor  and 
charity  —  comprises  about  eleven  and  a  half  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  This  class  he  thus 
describes : — 

"From  whatever  section  Class  B  is  drawn, 
except  the  sections  of  poor  women,  there  will 
be  found  many  of  them  who,  from  shiftlessness, 
helplessness,  idleness,  or  drink,  are  inevitably 
poor.  The  ideal  of  such  persons  is  to  work 
when  they  like  and  play  when  they  like;  these 
it  is  who  are  rightly  called  the  leisure  class 
among  the  poor,  leisure  bounded  very  closely 
by  the  pressure  of  want,  but  habitual  to  the 
extent  of  second  nature.  They  cannot  stand 
the  regularity  and  dullness  of  civilized  exist- 
ence, and  find  the  excitement  they  need  in  the 
life  of  the  streets  or  at  home  as  spectators  of  or 
participators  in  some  highly  colored  domestic 
scene." * 

Such  is  a  dispassionate  estimate  of  a  class 
which  this  high  authority  estimates  at  a  little 
more  than  eleven  per  cent,  of  the  population  of 
East  London.  From  this  class  the  unemployed 
are,  of  course,  largely  recruited.  The  figures 
refer  to  the  working-class  district  of  London, 
1  Labour  and  Life  of  the  People,  i.  43. 


70  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

ami  the  proportion  would  not  hold  good  of  the 
whole  metropolis,  nor  of  the  entire  population 
of  any  American  city.     The  percentage  would 

be  much  smaller.  But  the  existence  of  the 
class  is  scientifically  ascertained. 

Another  investigation  has  been  made  in  Eng- 
land,  the  results  of  which  are  thus  described  in 
a  newspaper  report:  — 

"Confessedly  the  most  serious  and  the  most 
difficult  social  problem  relates  to  the  unem- 
ployed. So  overwhelming  are  the  difficulties 
that  some  investigators  despair  of  a  solution 
amid  existing  conditions.  Numerous  expedients 
for  special  emergencies  have  been  tried,  but 
they  have  been  temporary,  and  have  only  par- 
tially met  the  case.  Charitable  associations, 
labor  unions,  and  municipalities  have  also  grap- 
pled with  the  problem  with  discouraging  lack 
of  success. 

"  In  view  of  these  facts  the  results  of  the  late 
thorough  and  scientific  investigation  in  England 
are  not  pleasant  reading.  Nearly  two  years 
ago,  at  the  suggestion  of  Sir  John  Gorst,  the 
Toynbee  Trust  took  the  matter  up,  and  has 
made  the  investigation  of  these  social  failures 
through  university  settlements.  Twelve  dis- 
tricts were  selected:  Glasgow,  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, Cambridge,  Oxford,  Birmingham,  Sun- 
derland, Bristol,   Nottingham,   Bethnal   Green, 


THE   STATE   AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED     71 

Wliitechapel,  and  Shad  well.  The  results  of  the 
inquiry  show  that  men  are  going  from  skilled  to 
unskilled  work,  but  not  one  man  has  suceeeded 
in  adapting  himself  to  any  skilled  work  with 
which  he  was  not  familiar.  Half  of  the  unem- 
ployed would  refuse  to  go  to  the  country  if  they 
had  a  chance.  As  to  characteristics  observed, 
the  committee  say  the  most  striking  is  stolidity. 
Instead  of  finding  the  reckless,  versatile  class 
of  popular  imagination,  the  figures  reveal  a 
stratum  of  dull,  apathetic  men,  passively  resist- 
ing all  outside  assistance.  They  never  go  in 
search  of  work;  as  a  class  they  never  hear  of 
new  work.  If  out  of  work,  they  depend  for 
their  hand  to  mouth  existence  upon  their  wives 
and  children,  or  upon  charity,  until  employment 
is  brought  to  their  doors.  They  are  not  unem- 
ployable, but,  being  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale, 
they  are  naturally  the  first  to  be  dismissed  and 
the  last  to  be  taken  on  again.  It  may  be  said, 
therefore,  truthfully,  that  they  neither  will  nor 
can  work  out  their  own  salvation.  The  problem 
remains  how  to  get  at  them  for  their  relief  and 
true  elevation." 

Such  are  the  facts  revealed  by  thorough  in- 
vestigation into  the  conditions  of  the  unemployed 
in  England.  They  are  paralleled  in  this  coun- 
try, as  we  shall  presently  see.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  inferred  that  all  those  who,  at  any 


72  SOCIAL   SAL  NATION 

time,  are  <>ut  <>f  work  belong  t<>  this  class.  In 
seasons   like  the   present,    <»f   great   industrial 

activity,  tin-  unemployed  are  almost  wholly  of 
this  class;  hut  then-  are  many  years,  in  this 
prosperous  country,  when  the  labor  force  is  not 
wholly  utilized,  and  when  willing  workers  find  it 
very  hard  to  obtain  remunerative  employment. 
One  who  has  been  a  city  pastor  for  many  years, 
and  has  spent  days  and  weeks  in  vainly  trying 
to  obtain  employment  for  industrious  people, 
finds  it  hard  to  be  patient  when  optimists  assert 
that  there  is  always  work  in  this  country  for 
those  who  are  willing  to  work.  The  fact  is 
that,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  the  sup- 
ply of  labor  exceeds  the  demand;  it  is  only  in 
exceptional  times  like  the  present  that  the  sur- 
plus labor  is  all  taken  up. 

In  a  discussion  by  Colonel  Carroll  D.  Wright, 
the  head  of  our  National  Bureau  of  Statistics,  of 
the  figures  of  the  census  of  1890,  he  estimates 
that  during  the  year  of  that  census  about  one 
twentieth  of  the  entire  labor  force  of  the  coun- 
try was  unemployed, — a  total  of  1,139,672. 
That  was  a  fairly  prosperous  year.  In  the 
great  industrial  depression  of  1893-94,  reports 
from  many  cities  showed  that  from  one  tenth 
to  one  third  of  all  the  wage- workers  were  out  of 
employment.  In  hard  times,  therefore,  this 
problem  of  the  unemployed  is   a  very  serious 


THE  STATE   AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED     73 

one,  and  even  in  average  times  it  demands  our 
sympathetic  attention.  If  five  per  cent,  of 
those  employed  in  gainful  vocations  are  out  of 
work  in  what  we  call  good  times,  this  fact  con- 
stitutes a  problem  to  which  all  men  and  women 
of  good-will  should  give  careful  study.  It  is 
true,  of  course,  that  a  considerable  portion  of 
those  who  are  thus  living  in  enforced  idleness 
do  not  become  a  charge  upon  the  community. 
"  Some  of  them  have  friends  on  whom  they  may 
depend  for  subsistence  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
period;  some  of  them  are  able  to  obtain  credit 
of  the  landlord,  the  grocer,  the  butcher,  the 
coal  dealer,  the  boarding-house  keeper.  If  they 
do  not  succeed  in  obtaining  work,  these  debts 
remain  unpaid  and  are  charged  up  to  profit  and 
loss  by  their  creditors,  —  making  it  necessary 
for  these  creditors  to  obtain  larger  rates  and 
larger  profits  from  those  who  can  pay,  and  thus 
distributing  some  portion  of  the  burden  over  the 
whole  community.  If  they  do  succeed  in  ob- 
taining work,  these  debts  remain  as  an  incum- 
brance, and  lessen  their  future  expenditures  for 
the  comforts  of  life.  But  some  good  portion 
of  the  million  or  more  who  are  unemployed  do 
thus  succeed  in  living  without  making  direct 
appeal  to  the  cities  or  the  charitable  societies. 

Just  what  percentage  of  the  unemployed  be- 
come a  charge  upon  public  or  private  charity, 


74  I  A  I,    SALVATION 

nobody  knows.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  tliat  from 
decade  to  decade  an  increasing  number  of  such 
persons  is  thus  becoming  more  or  less  dependent. 
And  tlif  first  thing  to  be  done  for  these  persons 

is  to  find  sonic  way  of  separating  those  of  them 
who  are  willing  to  work  from  those  who  are 
determined  to  live  without  work.  This  is  the 
last  thing  that  the  shirkers  will  consent  to  have 
done.  It  is  for  their  interest  to  prevent  this 
discrimination.  They  all  profess  to  want  work; 
they  are  all  looking  for  work;  that  is  their  oc- 
cupation; they  get  their  living  by  looking  for 
work  —  and  failing  to  find  it;  if  one  of  them 
should  find  work,  his  ordinary  means  of  liveli- 
hood would  fail.  It  is  difficult  for  most  of  us 
to  distinguish  between  those  who  are  looking 
for  work  with  the  hope  of  finding  it  and  those 
who  are  looking  for  it  with  the  hope  of  not  find- 
ing it.  The  distinction  is  purely  psychological, 
and  none  of  us  is  omniscient.  In  the  worst 
times  the  test  of  success  cannot  be  applied,  for 
the  man  who  wants  work  then  is  not  much  more 
likely  to  get  it  than  the  man  who.  does  not  want 
it.  Nevertheless,  the  crux  of  the  whole  business 
is  the  separation  of  these  two  men.  We  cannot 
dial  with  either  of  them  equitably  until  we  know 
which  one  wants  to  work  and  hates  to  be  depend- 
ent, and  which  one  hates  to  work  and  would 
just  as  lief  as  not  be  dependent. 


THE   STATE   AND  THE   UNEMPLOYED     75 

How  shall  these  classes  be  separated?  Some 
kind  of  work  test  must  be  devised,  and  it  must 
be  an  adequate  test,  —  one  that  can  be  intelli- 
gently and  impartially  applied.  If  aid  of  any 
kind  is  to  be  furnished  by  the  town  or  the  city, 
the  test  must  be  applied  by  the  public  authori- 
ties. The  state  or  the  city  must  have  some 
means  of  finding  out  whether  or  not  able-bodied 
persons  asking  relief  or  assistance  are  willing 
to  work. 

We  often  have  work  tests  of  various  kinds 
connected  with  private  charities,  but  these  are 
not  apt  to  be  satisfactory.  Applicants  for  aid 
are  not  obliged  to  submit  to  them;  they  may 
turn  away  from  them  to  the  public  authorities 
which  have  no  tests  to  apply;  and  thus  the  court 
of  last  resort  is  a  tribunal  that  really  asks  no 
questions.  Where  this  is  the  case,  there  is  no 
check  upon  imposture. 

If  you  have  a  private  charity  which  requires 
all  able-bodied  applicants  for  aid  to  work  for 
what  they  receive,  that  private  charity  is  per- 
fectly certain  to  get  a  bad  name  among  the 
unemployed.  Whether  it  deserves  it  or  not,  it 
will  be  distrusted  and  discredited  among-  the 
poor.  Those  who  do  not  want  to  work  for  their 
living  will,  of  course,  have  no  use  for  it;  they 
will  find  all  manner  of  fault  with  it;  they  will 
tell  all  kinds  of  tales  about  their  own  experience 


76  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

with  it,  or  the  experiences  of  others  of  which 
they  have  heard;  they  will  diligently  prejudice 

all  their  poor  neighbors  against  it.  Angela 
from  heaven  could  not  manage  a  private  charity 
with  a  work  test  and  not  lose  their  reputation. 
From  any  private  charity  thus  administered  the 
great  majority  of  the  needy  will  turn  away.  So 
long  as  the  city  stands  ready  to  give  free  aid 
with  no  adequate  investigation,  all  attempts  of 
private  institutions  to  sift  out  the  shirkers  from 
the  workers  will  prove  abortive.  The  city  itself 
must  establish  a  work  test  and  consistently 
enforce  it.  "The  evidence  is  very  strong," 
says  Mr.  John  Graham  Brooks,  "  that  voluntary 
association  alone  cannot  cope  with  the  problem. 
The  city  must  take  part  in  such  way  as  to  allow 
competition  between  it  and  voluntary  schemes. 
A  certain  steadiness  and  uniformity  can  alone 
be  secured  by  municipal  control." 

The  work  test  which  the  city  sets  up  must  be 
an  adequate  test.  A  stone  pile  is  not  sufficient. 
There  are  men  who  are  willing  to  work,  but 
who  simply  cannot  work  on  a  stone  pile.  They 
might  sweep  the  streets;  they  might  do  some 
other  useful  work.  But  I  think  that  in  large 
places  there  should  be  two  or  three  different 
kinds  of  work  provided  for  men  and  two  or 
three  for  women,  and  the  applicants  should  be 
assigned  by  the  officer  in  charge  to  the  kind  of 


THE  STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED     77 

work  for  which  he  or  she  is  best  fitted.  The 
steady  and  persistent  application  of  this  test 
by  the  public  authorities  will  gradually  sift  out 
the  industrious  from  the  idle. 

So,  then,  brethren,  you  will  find  that  one  of 
your  orthodox  doctrines  —  that  which  affirms 
the  necessity  of  separation  between  the  good 
and  the  evil  —  is  verified  in  the  necessities  of 
our  charitable  work.  However  it  may  be  in  the 
world  to  come,  it  is  needful  in  this  world  to 
find  some  way  of  dividing  the  sheep  from  the 
goats.  Neither  can  be  rightly  treated  while 
we  attempt  to  deal  with  them  together.  The 
winnowing  fan  is  one  of  the  indispensable 
appliances  of  good  social  administration.  I  do 
not  say  that  this  separation  of  the  shirkers  from 
the  workers  is  to  be  final;  the  expectation  is 
quite  otherwise ;  you  may  find  that  in  your  theo- 
logy, but  my  sociology  gives  no  warrant  for  it; 
the  separation  is  temporary  and  provisional,  but 
it  is  necessary  for  purposes  of  discipline. 

Having  divided  the  sheep  from  the  goats, 
what  shall  be  done  with  the  sheep?  The  work 
tests,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  should  be  ade- 
quate for  their  temporary  relief.  The  employ- 
ment offered  should  be  such  as  will  suffice  for 
the  frugal  maintenance  of  those  accepting  it, 
and  it  would  doubtless  be  wise  that  the  compen- 
sation should  be  in  provisions  rather  than  in 


78  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

money,  and  that  it  .should  be  distinctly  less  than 
that  which  capable  workmen  are  able  to  earn  in 
good  times.  There  ought  to  be  no  encourage- 
ment to  dependence  on  the  public  for  employ- 
ment. This  is  emergency  relief ;  it  is  intended 
to  help  these  industrious  people  through  a  period 
of  stringency,  and  it  ought  not  to  release  them 
from  the  need  of  vigilance  and  enterprise  in 
finding  for  themselves  suitable  employment  when 
the  industrial  machine  is  again  set  in  motion. 

It  will  be  well  also,  if  the  employment  offered 
by  the  city  can  be,  as  far  as  possible,  work  on 
public  account,  —  labor  upon  improvements  or 
repairs  for  the  city  itself,  —  so  that  it  shall  inter- 
fere no  more  than  is  necessary  with  the  private 
enterprises  in  which  laborers  are  at  the  same 
time  earning  their  living. 

With  these  safeguards,  the  temporary  provi- 
sion of  work  for  the  industrious  unemployed  by 
the  town  or  the  city  is  a  safe  and  wise  policy. 
The  labor  of  such  people  will  be  worth  what  it 
costs;  the  community  will  suffer  no  loss;  it  will 
be  possible  to  utilize  their  service  in  ways  which 
are  productive  and  economical.  But,  however 
this  may  be,  it  must  be  more  economical  and 
more  humane  and  more  Christian  to  find  work 
for  them  than  to  pauperize  them.  If  private- 
enterprise  and  private  capital  can  find  employ- 
ment for  the  multitude  that  is  standing  idle  in 


THE   STATE   AND   THE  UNEMPLOYED     79 

the  market-place,  by  all  means  let  it  be  done ; 
but  if  they  cannot,  then  let  the  state  organize 
for  them  employments  by  which  they  may  eat 
their  own  bread,  and  know  that  they  are  giving 
full  measure  for  what  they  receive,  and  are  not 
dependents  on  public  or  private  charity. 

Four  ways  of  helping  the  industrious  unem-  , 
ployed  can  be  thought  of. 

1.  Private  persons,  their  neighbors,  or  repre- 
sentatives of  the  churches  or  charitable  socie- 
ties may  assist  them  in  finding  work  by  which 
they  may  support  themselves. 

2.  By  such  private  agencies  alms  or  gratui- 
ties, in  the  form  of  money  or  food  or  fuel  or 
clothing,  may  be  bestowed  on  them,  by  which 
they  are  enabled  to  live  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
period  without  work. 

3.  The  public  authorities  of  the  city  or  the 
township  or  the  county  may  furnish  them  gra- 
tuitous assistance  in  the  same  way. 

4.  The  public  authorities  may  furnish  them 
temporary  employment  by  which  they  may  earn 
their  living. 

Of  these  four  methods  the  first,  in  my  esti- 
mation, is  the  best  and  the  last  is  the  second 
best.  The  other  two  are  not  to  be  tolerated ./ 
Neither  on  public  nor  on  private  charity  should 
any  able-bodied  man  or  woman  be  compelled  or 
permitted  to   subsist.     Private  charity   is  less  : 


80  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

demoralizing  than  public  charity,  because  it  is 
apt  to  be  more  discriminating  and  less  degrad- 
ing; but  it  is  an  indignity  and  a  wrong  to  ask 

anybody  who  is  willing  to  work  to  accept  a  dole 
and  to  live  upon  the  labor  of  others.  For  the 
lack  of  proper  organization  and  administration 
of  public  or  private  measures  of  relief  I  have 
often  been  compelled  to  do  this  very  thing,  but 
it  hurts  me  to  bestow  alms  on  able-bodied  per- 
sons, because  I  know  how  much  it  hurts  them 
to  receive  it.  But  this  is  what  the  public  au- 
thorities are  doing  all  the  while.  When  the 
state  steps  in  to  care  for  those  who  are  out  of 
work,  whether  in  good  times  or  in  bad  times, 
its  assistance  almost  always  takes  the  form  of 
alms.  And  it  takes  this  form  because  it  is  sup- 
posed to  be  dangerous  for  the  state  or  the  city 
to  furnish  work.  That,  we  are  told,  would  be 
a  socialistic  proceeding.  But  the  state  and  the 
city  do  raise  money,  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars,  by  taxation,  and  bestow  it  as  alms  on 
able-bodied  men  and  women.  This  is  not  so- 
cialism, but  it  is  something  much  worse.  Of 
all  the  ways  of  relieving  want,  this  is  by  far  the 
worst.  It  is  time  that  this  mischievous  business 
of  making  paupers  came  to  an  end.  And  I 
hope,  my  brethren,  that  you  may  be  able,  in 
your  day  and  generation,  to  do  something  to- 
ward putting  an  end  to  it.     We  are  living  now 


THE   STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED     81 

in  a  day  of  almost  unexampled  prosperity,  but 
we  must  not  imagine  that  it  is  permanent;  the 
days  of  depression  are  sure  to  return,  and  you 
will  find  yourselves  in  the  midst  of  multitudes 
who  are  willing  to  work,  but  whom  no  man  will 
hire.  When  such  conditions  arise,  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  public  authorities  to  organize  some 
methods  by  which  these  people  may  be  able  to 
earn  their  living  by  their  labor.  That  may  be 
socialism,  but  it  is  not  pauperism.  And  if  we 
must  choose  between  the  two,  I,  for  one,  find 
no  difficulty  in  making  the  choice.  All-of-us 
must  see  to  it  that  None -of -us  who  wishes  to 
work  or  is  able  to  work  shall  be  compelled  either 
to  starve  or  to  eat  the  bread  of  charity.  That 
is  as  nearly  fundamental  as  anything  can  be  in 
social  theory.  The  injury  which  might  come  to 
the  state  through  the  establishment  of  such  a 
claim  is  slight,  compared  with  the  injury  which 
it  is  now  suffering  through  the  establishment  of 
the  pauper's  claim.  Men  cry  out  in  alarm  at 
the  assertion  of  "the  right  to  work,"  but  they 
seem  to  be  quite  willing  to  concede  to  increas- 
ing multitudes  the  right  to  live  without  work. 
Which  involves  the  greater  peril  to  the  state? 

What  treatment,  now,  should  be  provided 
for  those  who  have  been  proved  to  have  a  con- 
stitutional aversion  to  industry,  who  are  deter- 
mined to  get  their  living  without  work?     Such 


82  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

persons  are  social  parasites.  They  have  for- 
feited, by  their  unsocial  conduct,  their  freedom. 
They  have  chosen  not  to  do  their  part  in  bear- 
ing the  burdens  of  society,  but  rather  to  impose 
themselves  as  burdens  upon  society.  Society 
must  therefore  put  them  under  a  discipline 
which  shall  bring  them  to  a  better  mind.  For 
persons  of  this  class  workhouses  should  be  pro- 
vided, which  should  be  not  merely  places  of 
temporary  detention,  but  training-schools  of 
industry.  It  is  doubtless  better  to  regard  these 
rather  as  educational  than  as  penal  institutions, 
because  people  of  this  class  do  not  need  to  be 
humiliated  and  degraded;  they  need  rather  to 
be  inspired  and  encouraged.  Probably  most  of 
them  deserve  pity  more  than  censure.  Perhaps 
a  few  months  of  wholesome  diet,  regular  habits, 
and  intelligent  direction  of  their  thought  and 
action  may  greatly  improve  their  physical  and 
mental  condition.  I  do  not  mean  that  they  will 
submit  to  this  regimen  without  compulsion ;  it 
will  be  necessary  to  convince  them  that  the  dis- 
cipline is  not  to  be  shirked;  but  the  constant 
effort  should  be  to  arouse  their  self-respect  and 
awaken  their  hope.  The  steady  and  resolute 
purpose  should  be  to  make  men  and  women  of 
them.  If  they  are  thoroughly  trained  in  some 
kind  of  industry  and  encouraged  to  believe  that 
they   may   become   useful    and    self-supporting 


THE  STATE  AND  THE   UNEMPLOYED    83 

members  of  society,  some  of  them,  at  least,  may- 
be rescued  from  pauperism.  To  this  end  the 
sentence  to  the  workhouse  should  be  indetermi- 
nate, and  the  discipline  should  not  be  relaxed 
until  the  subject  shows  good  promise  of  refor- 
mation, and  some  one  appears  who  will  be  re- 
sponsible for  giving  him  work  in  the  outside 
world. 

With  these  workhouses  in  the  cities  farm 
colonies  should  also  be  coordinated.  Many  of 
these  persons  would  be  far  better  off  in  the 
country ;  they  could  be  best  fitted  for  self-sup- 
port by  training  of  that  kind.  Not  a  few  of 
them  came  from  the  country,  and  know  more 
about  agricultural  work  than  about  any  other 
form  of  industry.  It  would  be  easier  for  them 
to  find  their  way  back  to  self-support  in  that 
calling  than  in  any  other. 

Respecting  the  need  of  some  such  measures 
of  isolation  and  discipline  for  persons  of  this 
class,  let  me  quote  from  an  article  by  Mr.  John 
Graham  Brooks,  whose  knowledge  of  this  sub- 
ject is  wide,  and  whose  sympathy  with  the  needy 
and  the  unfortunate  is  deep  and  true :  — 

"The  final  question  remains.  What  of  the 
tramp  and  all  his  kind,  whose  pretense  of  seek- 
ing work  is  but  a  form  of  begging?  What  of 
those  who  have  been  offered  work  and  have  re- 
fused it?    To  the  extent  that  public  opinion  can 


84  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

be  slowly  won  to  it,  I  see  but  one  answer.  All 
such  must  be  put  upon  a  penal  farm  colony  or 
into  a  training-school,  lmt  in  either  case  as 
much  under  restrainl  as  if  they  were  in  prison. 
There  shall  be,  however,  this  difference,  that 
they  shall  be  given  an  absolutely  fair  chance  to 
work  their  way  out  by  proving  two  things,  — 
first,  that  they  can  do  something  useful,  and 
second,  that  they  will  do  it.  If  they  continue 
to  refuse  both,  then  there  is  more  reason  why 
they  should  be  kept  under  restraint  than  in  the 
case  of  an  insane  person.  Socialists  affirm  that 
society  is  to  blame  for  the  tramp.  This  is  pos- 
sible, but  it  is  not  a  question  of  blame,  but  of 
social  danger.  I  submit  that  the  most  super- 
ficial study  of  the  tramp  question  and  that  of 
the  chronic  beggar,  generally,  in  their  effects 
upon  social  life,  leaves  no  doubt  that,  in  any 
kind  of  handling  of  our  problem,  so  long  as 
they  are  mixed  bewilderingly  together  with  the 
worthy  and  the  hopeful, — those,  I  mean,  who 
have  at  least  good-will,  and  for  whom  something 
can  be  done,  —  so  long  as  nine  tenths  of  the 
citizens  cannot  in  the  least  distinguish  between 
these  hopeful  elements  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
despairing  ones  on  the  other,  — we  are  blocked 
from  taking  even  the  first  steps  toward  a  ra- 
tional dealing  with  this  problem  of  charity  and 
the  unemployed.      This  deadbeat  crowd,  by  any 


THE   STATE   AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED     85 

test  that  we  can  apply  to  it,  is  our  greatest 
plague.  Indirectly  its  expense  is  incomparably 
greater  than  all  the  disciplinary  measures  I  am 
proposing.  But  when  this  crowd  is  considered 
in  its  relation  to  that  part  of  our  population 
which  furnishes  us  the  constant  stream  of  the 
undervitalized  and  unfit,  we  see  that  no  real 
gain  is  possible  until  these  sources  of  our  trou- 
bles are  reached.  The  three  great  passions  —  the 
sexual,  gaming,  and  drink  —  are  furnished  in  our 
cities  such  occasion  for  mischief  as  the  world 
has  not  seen.  The  brothel,  gambling,  and  the 
saloon  are  organized  into  such  formidable  en- 
ticements, and  are  on  so  vast  and  various  a 
scale,  that  they  work  in  the  deadliest  conceiv- 
able way  upon  this  class  which  makes  our  diffi- 
culty. Here  the  stuff  for  charity  and  the  un- 
employed is  manufactured  as  cloth  in  a  mill. 
What  a  comment  upon  our  intelligence  that 
Massachusetts  should  allow  8000  feeble-minded 
girls  to  be  loose  in  the  community  breeding  their 
kind,  instead  of  humanely  and  kindly  shutting 
them  up.  The  tramp  and  the  professional  beg- 
gar in  every  form  is  quite  as  distinct  a  danger 
to  society,  and  as  fruitful  of  results  for  charity 
and  the  unemployed." 

We  sometimes  say  that  society  is  an  organ- 
ism, and  there  is  truth  in  the  biological  analogy 
if  we  do  not  press  it  too  far.     A  man  is  an 


86  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

organism  plus  intelligence  and  will,  and  so  is 
society.  The  intelligence  and  will  of  the  man 
are  put  in  charge  of  the  physical  organism,  and 
the  intelligence  and  will  of  society  are  put  in 
charge  of  the  social  organism.  If  the  man's 
intelligence  finds  that  morbid  conditions  have 
been  set  up  in  any  portion  of  his  body,  he  pro- 
ceeds to  deal  with  them  by  remedial  measures. 
This  may  call  for  severity,  for  the  administra- 
tion of  bitter  medicines,  for  the  application  of 
heat  and  counter-irritants;  it  may  even  demand 
surgery  —  the  free  use  of  the  knife  —  the  exci- 
sion of  the  diseased  parts  of  the  body.  Now 
just  as  the  free  intelligence  of  a  man  applies  the 
necessary  curatives  to  his  body  when  it  is  dis- 
eased, so  the  free  intelligence  which  is  respon- 
sible for  the  social  organism  must  apply  the 
necessary  curatives  to  those  portions  of  society 
which  are  morbidly  affected,  even  though  this 
may  involve  pain  and  suffering.  And  there 
may  be,  in  this  treatment,  something  analogous 
to  conservative  surgery.  Not  that  the  amputa- 
tion of  the  diseased  members  of  society  is  to  be 
considered.  No  portions  of  the  social  organism 
are  to  be  cut  off  and  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void. 
That  is  not  our  prerogative.  But  the  morbid 
elements  may  be  separated  from  the  social  or- 
ganism, not  to  be  consigned  to  destruction,  but 
to  receive  curative  treatment,  that  they  may  be 


THE  STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED     87 

restored  to  their  place  and  function  in  society. 
We  separate  from  society  in  this  way  the  crim- 
inal classes,  so  called,  that  they  may  be  re- 
formed. They  are  rightly  regarded  as  diseased 
social  tissue,  and  we  isolate  .them  that  we  may 
make  them  whole.  All  our  treatment  of  them 
must  have  this  end  in  view.  And  the  same 
treatment  must  be  given  to  the  class  which  is 
sinking  into  penury  and  pauperism.  Chronic 
mendicants  must  be  separated  from  society  and 
the  sexes  from  each  other,  so  that  the  race  of 
"ne'er-do-weels"  shall  not  be  propagated,  and 
so  that  those  segregated  may  be  reclaimed  and 
fitted  for  social  service.1 

All  this  is  the  imperative  social  demand,  to 
which  we  must  give  due  heed.  But  for  you  and 
me,  my  brethren,  there  is  another  and  a  deeper 
motive  which  must  never  be  obscured.  It  is 
not  merely  the  protection  of  society,  it  is  the 
salvation  of  these  people  themselves  that  we  are 
to  keep  before  our  minds  in  all  this  discipline. 
The  tramp  and  the  professional  beggar  is  our 
brother;  he  is  worth  saving,  therefore  we  must 
stop  pauperizing  him  and  put  him  under  influ- 
ences that  will  tend  to  reclaim  and  restore  him 
to  manhood.      It  is  the  recognition  of  this  high 

1  See  a  fuller  discussion  of  this  phase  of  the  question  in 
Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  lvii.  pp.  135-153,  "  The  Cure  of  Perj- 
ury." 


88  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  state  for  which 
I  am  pleading.  This  is  work  which  cannot  be 
done  by  private  agencies.  It  involves  a  mea- 
sure of  compulsion  which  only  the  state  can 
exercise.  And  the  state  can  never  do  it  as  it 
ought  to  be  done  until  it  gets  a  new  conception 
of  its  function  as  the  representative  of  the  divine 
power  and  the  divine  goodness. 

The  application  of  the  work  test  will  reveal 
to  us  another  class  for  whom  some  provision 
must  be  made.  It  will  show  us  a  considerable 
number  who  are  not  unwilling  to  work,  but  who 
are  utterly  incompetent.  There  is  no  kind  of 
useful  industry  in  which  they  can  earn  their 
living.  If  they  get  employment  they  do  not 
keep  it,  because  their  work  is  worth  so  little. 
For  these  —  especially  for  the  younger  ones 
among  them  —  other  trade  schools,  not  penal  in 
their  administration,  should  be  established,  — 
schools  in  city  and  country  in  which  their  hands 
and  their  brains  may  be  trained  to  do  something 
that  may  be  of  service  to  the  community.  Mr. 
Brooks,  who  carefully  watched  the  experiments 
in  the  winter  of  1893-94,  in  which  work  was 
furnished  by  the  cities  to  those  out  of  employ- 
ment, testifies,  in  the  article  before  quoted,  that 
among  the  great  majority  of  those  applying  for 
relief  there  is  "an  appalling  lack  of  even  the 
beginning  of  any  kind  of  skill.     The  skilless 


THE   STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED    89 

workman  in  this  age  of  highly  developed  indus- 
try is,  especially  in  cities,  at  a  terrible  disad- 
vantage. He  can  produce  nothing  for  which 
market  value  exists,  nothing  for  which  there  is 
a  real  want."  What  shall  we  do  for  this  man? 
We  must  do  one  of  two  things.  We  must  feed 
him  as  a  pauper  and  let  him  live  in  idleness,  or 
we  must  try  to  teach  him  some  kind  of  industry 
by  which  he  may  earn  his  living.  It  is  a  stu- 
pendous and  costly  blunder  to  let  him  become 
a  pauper,  and  the  other  course  is  the  only  one 
that  is  open  to  an  intelligent  and  humane  de- 
mocracy. 

A  late  and  inadequate  remedy  this  must  be 
confessed  to  be.  The  training  of  these  people 
ought  to  have  begun  earlier.  Our  systems  of 
education  ought  to  make  large  provision  for 
instruction  of  this  kind.  There  should  be  a 
better  chance  for  our  boys  and  girls  to  learn 
the  arts  of  industry.  The  stream  cannot  be 
thoroughly  cleansed  unless  we  begin  at  the 
fountain-head. 

To  this  entire  question  of  unemployment  and 
charity  a  great  deal  of  very  earnest  study  has 
been  given  during  the  past  twenty-five  years, 
and  you  will  find  men  and  women  everywhere, 
some  in  public  office  and  some  in  private  sta- 
tion, who  are  doing  what  they  can  to  enlighten 
the  public  upon  these  matters  and  to  rectify  the 


90  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

defects  of  public  administration.     Yet  there  is 

still  a  vast  amount  of  ignorance  and  carelessness 
and  fatal  foolishness  in  our  handling  of  these 
difficult  problems.  No  man  can  know  what  I 
have  been  obliged  to  know  about  the  deadly  ef- 
fects of  the  pauperizing  methods  which  the  state 
is  constantly  practicing  without  feeling  that 
something  must  be  done  to  put  an  end  to  them. 
The  money  wasted  in  this  bad  administration  is 
a  vast  sum,  but  that,  after  all,  is  a  trifle  com- 
pared with  the  waste  of  manhood  and  woman  - 
hold  which  it  entails.  When  I  see  the  fibre  of 
character  slowly  decaying  under  these  influences ; 
men  and  women  gradually  losing  self-respect 
and  independence,  and  learning  to  rely  more  and 
more  on  alms  and  doles;  losing  the  habit  of 
thrift  and  living  literally  from  hand  to  mouth; 
when  I  see  children,  by  the  thousand,  growing 
up  in  homes  where  this  chronic  mendicancy  is 
the  rule,  my  heart  cries  out  against  the  careless- 
ness which  permits  such  degradation.  We  have 
no  right  to  allow  this  moral  infection  to  spread. 
If  we  do  not  know  enough  to  stop  it,  we  do  not 
know  enough  to  rule  this  country.  The  pains 
of  hunger  call  forth  our  sympathy ;  we  ought  to 
shield  our  unfortunate  neighbors  from  that  suf- 
fering ;  we  must  make  sure  that  no  one  who  is 
willing  to  wrork  shall  suffer  hunger;  but,  after 
all,  the  dry  rot  with  which  hundreds  of  charac- 


THE  STATE  AND  THE  UNEMPLOYED    91 

ters  are  stricken  through,  as  the  result  of  our 
reckless  and  corrupting  charities,  is  far  more 
terrible  than  any  physical  pain.  Who  of  us 
would  not  sooner  see  any  one  dear  to  him  die 
of  starvation  than  sink  into  that  abject  condi- 
tion where  he  would  rather  grovel  as  a  mendi- 
cant for  bread  than  earn  it  by  honest  work? 

And  you  can  think  for  yourselves  —  I  will 
not  try  to  assist  your  reflection  —  what  sort  of 
citizens  these  must  be;  what  relation  they  are 
likely  to  sustain  to  bosses  and  boodlers;  what 
safety  there  is  for  free  government  in  a  popu- 
lation containing  a  large  infusion  of  such  ele- 
ments. 

As  it  is  through  bad  civic  administration  that 
these  mischiefs  have  grown,  so  it  must  be 
through  good  civic  administration  that  they 
shall  be  corrected  and  prevented.  Is  it  not  evi- 
dent that  the  people  everywhere,  in  the  city, 
the  county,  the  state,  have  on  their  hands  some 
large  and  serious  tasks?  The  business  of  gov- 
erning this  country  is  becoming  a  very  intricate 
business,  requiring  the  ripest  wisdom,  the  broad- 
est sympathy,  the  keenest  insight  into  the  values 
of  character,  the  utmost  docility  under  the 
teachings  of  experience,  the  greatest  firmness  in 
holding  fast  to  eternal  principles.  For  such 
affairs  as  we  have  been  considering,  what  clear- 
minded,  stainless,  magnanimous  men  we  need! 


92  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

"What  prospeel  is  there  Unit  tin-  people  will  find 
such  men  and  put  them  in  charge  of  these  diffi- 
cult undertakings?  Is  not  this  the  Fundamen- 
tal trouble  —  that  the  people's  standards  are 
not  so  high  as  they  ought  to  be;  that  they  do 
not  rightly  value  the  essential  qualities  of  char- 
acter? The  real  reason  why  the  workingman 
ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  eat  his  bread  in 
idleness  is  that  this  dependence  costs  him  his 
manhood.  But  your  political  spoilsman,  who 
is  likely  to  be  chosen  to  manage  this  business 
of  poor  relief,  is  himself  seeking  to  become  a 
pensioner  or  dependent  on  the  government ;  he 
has  no  sense  of  the  workingman's  peril;  the 
pauper's  motive  and  his  own  are  essentially  the 
same ;  how  can  he  deal  with  a  problem  so  vitally 
involving  the  integrity  of  men?  And  if  the 
spoilsman's  methods  and  purposes  are  not  ab- 
horrent to  the  people  who  elect  him,  how  can 
they  understand  the  perils  of  pauperism? 

Believe  me,  brethren,  there  is  need  of  a  radi- 
cal change  of  heart,  on  the  part  of  the  great 
multitude  of  the  voters,  those  in  the  churches 
as  well  as  those  outside  the  churches,  in  order 
that  we  may  deal  wisely  and  savingly  with  these 
great  interests.  The  work  before  us  —  let  us 
never  forget  —  is  the  work  of  saving  men.  To 
this  work  the  state  is  summoned.  I  said  in  my 
last  lecture  that  the  ministry  to  the  poor  in  their 


THE   STATE  AND   THE   UNEMPLOYED    93 

homes  is  too  sacred  and  personal  to  be  per- 
formed by  public  officials;  yet  here  is  work 
which  the  state  must  do,  and  which  can  only  be 
well  done  by  those  who  have  some  deep  sense 
of  spiritual  realities.  Is  it  not  evident  that 
citizenship  is  a  serious  vocation?  Has  the 
Christian  minister  any  responsibility  for  bring- 
ing this  truth  home  to  the  consciences  of  the 
people  ? 


IV 

OUR   BROTHERS    IN    BONDS 

Of  those  who  are  described  as  the  criminal 
classes,  —  those  who  are  in  prison,  or  going 
thither,  or  departing  thence,  —  we  are  to  speak 
at  this  time.  Criminology,  the  study  of  those 
who  have  f  aUen  under  the  ban  of  the  law ;  peno- 
logy, the  study  of  prison  discipline,  are  fruitful 
topics  of  investigation  for  students  of  soci- 
ety. The  subject  is  one  with  which  the  Chris- 
tian church  and  the  Christian  ministry  ought  to 
be  concerned.  No  matter  where  your  ministry 
may  be  exercised,  the  problems  growing  out  of 
the  existence  of  a  criminal  class  are  sure  to  be 
brought  home  to  you.  You  may  not  have,  as 
I  have,  a  great  penitentiary  within  the  sound  of 
your  church  bell,  but  men  and  women  in  every 
community  in  which  you  live  will  be  going  to 
prison,  and  returning  from  prison;  and  the 
question  respecting  the  causes  that  send  them 
thither  and  the  influences  that  surround  them 
there  will  be  one  that  will  force  itself  upon  the 
consideration  of  every  thoughtful   follower  of 


OUR  BROTHERS  IN  BONDS  95 

Jesus  Christ.  Moreover,  if  no  great  prison  is 
near  your  home,  you  are  pretty  sure  to  be  in 
the  immediate  neighborhood  of  a  jail  or  a  work- 
house, and  some  of  the  most  serious  questions 
connected  with  our  penal  systems  in  this  coun- 
try are  those  arising  out  of  the  conditions  of 
our  county  jails  and  city  prisons.  There  are 
sufficient  reasons,  therefore,  why  you  should 
seek  to  keep  yourselves  informed  respecting  all 
the  phases  of  this  most  vital  branch  of  social 
study.  You  are  sure  to  have  opportunities  of 
influencing  public  opinion  and  of  guiding  public 
action  in  a  matter  which  deeply  concerns  the 
welfare  of  the  state. 

When  we  speak  of  crime  and  criminals,  defi- 
nitions are  needed.  "Crimes  are  wrongful  ac- 
tions, violations  of  the  rights  of  other  men,  in- 
juries done  to  individuals  or  to  society,  against 
which  there  is  a  legal  prohibition,  enforced  by 
some  appropriate  legal  penalty.'''1  Offenses 
which  the  state  undertakes  to  punish  are  crimes. 
These  are  technically  divided  into  felonies  and 
misdemeanors,  —  the  line  of  division  between 
which  is  not  very  clearly  drawn.  Perhaps  the 
usual  distinction  would  be  this,  that  a  felony  is 
an  offense  punished  by  death  or  imprisonment 
in  a  state  prison,  while  a  misdemeanor  is  an 
offense  punished  by  a  fine  or  an  imprisonment 
1  Punishment  and  Reformation,  by  J.  H.  Wines,  p.  11. 


96  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

in  a  jail.  The  greater  crimes  arc  styled  felonies 
and  the  lesser  misdemeanors.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, is  regarded  as  a  crime  but  that  which  tin- 
law  undertakes  to  punish;  a  criminal  is  one  who 
has  fallen  under  the  punitive  prohibition  of  the 
law. 

The  category  of  crimes  is  therefore  a  shifting 
and  indefinite  one;  it  changes  as  ethical  stand- 
ards change,  and  as  new  conceptions  of  right 
and  wrong  register  themselves  in  statutes.     In 
days  long  past,  deviations  from  the  established 
religion  were  punished  as  crimes.     The  history 
of  criminal  law  is  full  of  curious  illustrations  of 
what  men  have  thought  it  needful  to  put  under 
the  ban  of  the  law.     The  German  printers  who 
first  appeared  in  Paris  with  printed  books  found 
themselves  denounced  as  sorcerers,  and  to  es- 
cape  being    burnt  alive,  fled  the   city.      "The 
Ionians,"  says  Mr.  Wines,  "passed  a  law  exil- 
ing all  men  who  were  never  seen  to  laugh.    The 
Carthaginians  killed  their  generals  when  they 
lost  a  battle.     Pliny  relates  that  they  condemned 
Hanno  for  having  tamed  a  lion,  because  a  man 
who  could  tame  a  lion  was  dangerous  to  the  lib- 
erties of  the  people.     In  ancient  Rome  play- 
actors were    deprived   of    citizenship.      By  the 
Julian  law  celibacy  was  a  crime.    In  Sparta  con- 
firmed   bachelors   were    stripped    in   midwinter 
and  publicly  scourged  in  the  market-place."1 

1  Punishment  and  Reformation,  p.  18. 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN  BONDS  97 

The  catalogue  of  obsolete  crimes  is  a  long 
one.  On  the  other  hand,  the  new  social  and 
economic  conditions  are  greatly  increasing  the 
number  of  misdeeds  which  the  law  forbids  and 
punishes.  "In  a  word,"  Dr.  Wines  concludes, 
"  crime  is  a  variable  quantity.  It  is  the  product 
of  the  aggregate  social  conditions  and  tendencies 
of  a  people  at  a  given  moment  in  its  history. 
Actions  which  in  one  age  are  regarded  as  he- 
roic, and  which  have  elevated  their  authors  to 
the  rank  of  the  gods,  in  another  bring  the  same 
daring  spirits  to  a  dungeon  or  the  gibbet."1 
In  a  great  debate  in  a  religious  assembly,  early 
in  the  last  century,  a  speaker  replied  to  some 
strictures  on  slavery  by  admonishing  the  critic 
that  Abraham,  who  was  the  friend  of  God  and 
the  father  of  the  faithful,  was  a  slaveholder, 
whereupon  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  arose  and  said: 
"Mr.  Moderator,  if  Abraham  were  living  in 
Connecticut  to-day,  we  should  send  him  to  the 
penitentiary!  " 

Not  merely  the  definition  of  crime  changes, 
but  the  methods  of  dealing  with  it  are  also  con- 
stantly undergoing  modification.  In  the  history 
of  penology  all  the  earlier  chapters  are  chapters 
of  horrors.  Death  by  all  manner  of  diabolical 
inflictions,  mutilation,  tortures,  shameful  expos- 
ure, everything  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could 
Punishment  and  Reformation,  p.  23. 


98  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

invent  to  produce  pain  and  suffering,  lias  been 
resorted  to  as  the  Legal  retribution  <>t'  wrong- 
doing.    It  would  not  now  Le  profitable  to  repeat 

this  terrible  record.  In  our  own  time  the  more 
brutal  and  violent  forms  of  punishment  are  al- 
most universally  abandoned ;  the  branding- irons, 
the  whipping-post,  the  pillory  have  disappeared ; 
in  most  of  our  states  the  death  penalty  is  still 
inflicted,  though  often  by  methods  less  painful 
and  revolting  than  those  formerly  in  use,  and 
the'  form  of  punishment  for  crime  which  has 
supplanted  almost  every  other  is  imprisonment. 
It  may,  however,  be  a  fact  unfamiliar  to  some 
of  you  that  the  prison,  as  a  penal  institution 
provided  by  the  state,  is  a  recent  contrivance. 
Something  of  the  nature  of  the  prison  existed 
in  antiquity,  but  it  was  not  a  place  in  which 
men  who  had  been  tried  and  adjudged  guilty 
were  confined  as  a  punishment  for  crime.  If 
you  will  reflect  upon  the  Mosaic  sociology,  with 
which  you  are  of  course  familiar,  you  will  re- 
member that  no  mention  of  prisons  is  found  in 
the  penal  laws  of  Moses.  "In  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  in  Greek  literature,"  says  Mr.  Charl- 
ton T.  Lewis,  "there  is  an  occasional  reference 
to  imprisonment,  but  the  word  for  it  in  Greek 
is  precisely  the  word  for  bondage.  It  means  to 
take  a  man  and  put  him  in  chains,  to  fetter  a 
man,  when  it  is  necessary  to  restrain  him.     The 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  99 

Eomans  cast  some  of  the  apostles  in  prison,  but 
for  what  purpose?  Did  they  attempt  thus  to 
punish  them?  Such  an  idea  never  entered  their 
minds.  Every  prisoner  was  detained  for  a  defi- 
nite purpose.  He  was  held  for  trial,  or  to  keep 
him  out  of  the  way  of  somebody  who  was  his 
enemy;  but  imprisonment  inflicted  by  law  for 
crime  did  not  exist.  Prisons  existed  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  but  they  were  a  sort  of  appendage 
to  feudal  power.  Noblemen  with  castles  always 
had  prisons  in  them.  Kings  had  prisons  into 
which  they  could  throw  their  prime  ministers  or 
wives  or  anybody  they  could  get  hold  of  and 
keep  them  until  they  saw  fit  otherwise  to  punish 
them.  But  the  idea  of  imprisonment  as  a  pen- 
alty had  not  dawned  upon  the  world."1 

It  was  not  until  the  eighteenth  century,  that 
prisons  began  to  be  used  for  strictly  penal  pur- 
poses. Men  were  revolting  from  the  inhuman 
penalties,  and  in  their  reluctance  to  inflict  them 
the  criminals  were  left  for  longer  and  longer 
periods  in  the  place  of  detention,  and  finally, 
the  idea  that  the  imprisonment  itself  was  pun- 
ishment enough  began  to  get  possession  of  men's 
minds,  and  confinement  for  specified  legal  pe- 
riods was  substituted  for  most  of  the  barbarous 
inflictions  which  the  law  had  formerly  author- 

1  Report  of  International  Congress,  Chicago,  1893  :  Insane, 
Feeble-minded,  and  Criminals,  p.  96. 


100  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

ized.  Doubtless  it  is  more  humane  than  the 
torture  and  mutilation  which  it  has  Bupplanted, 
hut  there  is  reason  to  doubt  whether  we  have  yet 
learned  how  to  administer  it  so  as  to  secure  tin- 
best  results. 

For  what  reasons  do  we  now  imprison  men  ? 
Imprisonment  is  properly  considered  to  be  a 
form  of  punishment,  and  our  jurisprudence  so 
regards  it.  One  of  the  penalties  prescribed  for 
the  violation  of  law  is  imprisonment  in  the  jail 
or  the  penitentiary.  And  various  reasons  have 
been  given  for  the  infliction  of  the  penalty. 
The  first  is  the  gratification  of  vengeance.  The 
customary  law  of  ancient  peoples  required  the 
infliction  of  vengeance  upon  the  perpetrators 
of  wrongs  or  injuries.  It  was  the  duty  of  the 
sufferer  himself,  or  of  his  nearest  relative,  to 
inflict  an  equivalent  injury  upon  the  man  who 
had  done  the  wrong.  Private  vengeance  of  this 
sort  was  not  only  regarded  as  a  right,  it  was  a 
sacred  obligation;  the  man  was  execrated  and 
despised  who  failed  to  administer  it.  As  so- 
ciety became  more  fully  organized,  the  lawgivers 
undertook  to  regulate  this.  Naturally,  private 
vengeance  tended  to  excesses;  the  retaliator 
rarely  stopped  with  inflicting  the  amount  of  in- 
jury which  he  or  his  kinsman  had  suffered,  and 
therefore  metes  and  bounds  were  set  to  the  exer- 
cise of  this  function.     The  Mosaic  law  is  such 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  101 

an  instance.  "Thou  shalt  give  life  for  life,  eye 
for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot  for 
foot,  burning  for  burning/  wound  for  wound, 
stripe  for  stripe."-1  Here  i?,  no  doubt,  an  at- 
tempt to  restrain  -me*n  frcm"  excesses  of 'ven- 
geance ;  the  equivalent  must  be  exact;  the  injured 
man  may  take  his  pound  of  flesh,  but  no  more. 
Vengeance  is  embarrassed,  as  Shylock  found, 
when  it  is  compelled  to  measure  its  stroke;  in 
the  care  which  it  is  forced  to  exercise,  its  fury  is 
cooled.  By  and  by  the  state  in  the  person  of 
its  ruler  took  the  power  of  inflicting  punishment 
wholly  into  its  own  hands.  It  began  to  be 
dimly  recognized  that  an  injury  to  one  was  the 
concern  of  all ;  and  that  the  state  should  protect 
its  citizens  and  punish  their  injuries.  Still, 
this  motive  of  vengeance  was  retained  as  a  rea- 
son for  punishment,  only  now  the  punishment 
was  not  inflicted  by  the  sufferer  or  his  kinsman, 
but  by  the  constituted  authorities.  That  motive 
is  still,  by  some  jurists  and  moralists,  regarded 
as  one  of  the  sound  reasons  for  punishing  crimi- 
nals. I  think  that  Carlyle  somewhere  says  that 
the  impulse  to  avenge  yourself  upon  one  who 
has  wronged  you  is  the  foundation  of  our  penal 
system.  "I  think  it  highly  desirable,"  says 
Sir  James  Stephen,  "that  criminals  should  be 
hated;  that  the  punishment  inflicted  upon  them 
i  Ex.  xxi.  23-25. 


102  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

should  lie  so  contrived  as  to  give  expression  to 
that  hat  1/(1,  and  to  justify  it,  so  far  as  the  pub- 
lic provision  of  meanp  5ojr  expressing  and  grati- 
fying.^ natival  healthy,  sentiment  can  justify 
and  encourage  it'."1 

This  reason  for  putting  men  in  prison  is  one 
which  the  growth  of  moral  sentiment  has  de- 
prived of  much  of  its  force.  When  we  consider 
our  own  inability  to  determine  the  exact  amount 
of  culpability  in  the  case  of  each  prisoner,  and 
when  we  take  into  account  all  the  facts  of  he- 
redity and  environment  which  may  have  contrib- 
uted to  lead  him  into  the  ways  of  transgression, 
we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cherish- 
ing of  hatred  toward  him  is  a  luxury  in  which  we 
should  sparingly  indulge  ourselves.  We  may 
safely  conclude  that  the  main  reason  why  these 
prisoners  are  in  our  penitentiaries  or  our  jails 
is  not  that  we,  the  people  of  the  state,  may  hate 
them  or  express  our  displeasure  toward  them, 
or  inflict  vengeance  upon  them. 

And  yet  there  is  a  proper  feeling  of  resent- 
ment against  the  enemies  of  society.  It  is  one 
of  the  deepest  truths  of  the  natural  moral  order 
that  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard:  and 
one  of  the  reasons  why  it  is  hard  is  that  he  has 
arrayed  against  himself  the  displeasure  of  his 
neighbors.  That  fact  finds  and  ought  to  find 
1  History  of  Criminal  Law,  vol.  ii.  chap.  xvii.  p.  82. 


OUR   BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  103 

expression  in  our  penal  laws.  He  who  does 
wrong  ought  to  suffer,  and  society  ought  to  be 
so  organized  that  he  shall  suffer. 

We  are  told  that  the  Christian  law  forbids 
retribution;  that  Jesus  bids  us  "Judge  not;" 
that  he  enjoins  upon  us  the  love  of  our  enemies ; 
that  he  admonishes  us  that  vengeance  belongs 
to  God.  But  these  words  are  more  properly  in- 
terpreted as  the  rule  of  individual  conduct,  and 
do  not  apply  to  the  state  which  deals  imperson- 
ally with  evil-doers.  Between  my  own  personal 
feeling  of  resentment  toward  the  man  who  has 
injured  me  and  my  feeling  of  resentment  to- 
ward the  enemy  of  society  there  is  a  clear  dif- 
ference. The  one  sentiment  I  cannot  afford  to 
indulge,  for  it  may  be  altogether  selfish;  the 
other  I  may  safely  cherish,  for  it  is  altogether 
social. 

Indeed,  if  the  Apostle  Paul  understood  the 
Christian  law,  the  case  is  clear,  for  he  tells  us 
that  "the  powers  that  be"  —  the  constituted 
authorities  —  are  ordained  to  be  a  terror  to  evil- 
doers. "If  thou  do  that  which  is  evil,"  he  says, 
"  be  afraid ;  for  he  [the  magistrate]  beareth  not 
the  sword  in  vain ;  for  he  is  a  minister  of  God, 
an  avenger  for  wrath  to  him  that  doeth  evil." 
The  people,  in  a  republic,  are  the  representa- 
tives of  God,  and  they  are  bound,  in  their 
methods  of  administration,  to  express  the  mind 


104  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

and  will  of  (i<>d  as  besl  they  can.  They  will 
tin  it  l>ut  Imperfectly,  do  doubt,  bul  they  must 
strive  to  do  it.  They  will  inadequately  repre- 
sent the  divine  justice  and  mercy  in  their  at- 
tempts to  reclaim  evil-doers,  but  they  must  use 
their  best  endeavors.  The  fact  that  they  are 
not  omniscient  should  make  them  careful  how 
they  bear  the  sword  of  retribution,  but  it  does 
not  release  them  from  the  responsibility  of  bear- 
ing it.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  their  laws  and 
penalties  ought  to  express  the  divine  displeasure 
against  wrong-doing;  that  they  ought  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  solemn  testimony  of  the  moral  sense 
of  the  nation  against  those  acts  which  tend  to 
destroy  the  social  order  and  to  overthrow  the 
kingdom  of  God.  It  is  natural  and  right  that 
society  should  regard  with  condign  displeasure 
those  acts  which  tend  to  make  society  impossi- 
ble, and  that  it  should  express  this  displeasure 
in  the  penalties  which  it  annexes  to  crime.  At 
the  same  time  there  is  great  need  that  in  the 
administration  of  punishment  we  learn  to  esti- 
mate social  injuries  more  accurately.  It  is  here 
that  we  are  constantly  making  the  most  gro- 
tesque and  mischievous  mistakes.  The  worst 
public  enemies  of  our  time  are  not  always  the 
men  who  get  into  the  penitentiary.  The  acts 
which  are  tending  most  powerfully  to  make  so- 
ciety impossible  are  committed  by  men  in  the 


OUR  BROTHERS  IN  BONDS  105 

high  places  of  respectability  and  power.  There 
is  no  man  in  any  prison  in  this  country  who  has 
done  a  hundredth  part  as  much  to  make  society 
impossible  as  has  been  done  by  any  one  of  half 
a  dozen  great  political  leaders.  The  man  who 
by  the  corrupt  use  of  money  manipulates  cau- 
cuses and  conventions  and  debauches  candidates 
and  voters,  thus  poisoning  at  their  sources  the 
streams  of  political  power,  is  the  most  danger- 
ous man  in  society  to-day;  albeit  his  guilt  is 
shared  by  those  managers  of  great  corporations 
who  furnish  him  with  corruption  funds.  If  our 
notions  of  justice  were  clearer,  such  men  would 
not  be  abroad  in  society.  Compared  with  the 
destructive  influence  of  such  men,  how  harmless 
are  most  of  the  criminals  shut  up  in  our  prisons. 
And  there  are  other  classes  of  malefactors  with 
whom  both  law  and  public  sentiment  very  in- 
adequately deal.  Such  miscarriages  of  justice 
do  not,  however,  affect  the  principle  for  which 
I  am  contending,  namely,  that  law  and  penalty 
ought  to  express  our  moral  judgment  against 
wrong-doing,  and  our  solemn  consent  to  the 
eternal  principle  that  suffering  ought  to  follow 
wrong-doing. 

In  our  reaction  against  the  retributive  severi- 
ties of  the  old  penology,  we  are  in  great  danger 
of  losing  sight  of  fundamental  ethical  principles. 
Many  sentimental  prison  reformers  are  in  the 


10G  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

habit  of  talking  about  prisoners,  and  even  of 
talking  to  them,  as  it'  they  wen-  wholly  innocent 
and  amiable  people,  Binned  against,  more  than 
sinning,  rather  better,  on  the  whole,  than  those 
outside  the  walls.  Such  talk  is  highly  perni- 
cious. The  fact  that  there  are  great  scoundrels 
outside  and  undeserving  sufferers  inside  must 
not  lead  us  to  minimize  the  wrongs  which  these 
men  have  done.  They  must  be  made  to  feel 
that  the  resentment  of  society  against  anti-so- 
cial conduct  is  a  just  resentment.  The  first 
condition  of  genuine  reform  is  that  they  shall 
recognize  that  feeling  as  just,  and  shall  share  it. 

Nevertheless,  I  do  not  think  that  this  ought 
to  be  the  prominent  motive  in  prison  discipline. 
For  the  reasons  already  suggested,  —  because 
our  knowledge  of  motives  is  inadequate;  be- 
cause it  is  so  hard  for  us  to  judge  of  the  real 
demerit  of  the  criminal,  —  it  is  unwise  to  em- 
phasize this  element  in  our  prison  administra- 
tion. We  must  recognize  it  as  one  of  the 
motives  which  influence  our  action,  but  we 
must  keep  it  always  in  subordination  to  other 
and  clearer  motives. 

Another  reason  given  for  the  imprisonment 
of  evil-doers  is  the  deterring  not  only  of  the 
criminals  themselves,  but  of  others  also  from  the 
commission  of  similar  offenses.  If  this  were 
the  chief  reason  for  the  punishment  of  criminals, 


OUR   BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  107 

it  would  appear  that  the  severest  and  the  most 
painful  punishments  would  be  the  most  effec- 
tual. This,  indeed,  has  been  the  assumption  until 
a  very  recent  day.  Not  seventy  years  ago,  the 
state  prison  of  Connecticut  was  a  cavern  in 
the  town  of  Granby,  unlighted  and  un venti- 
lated, —  a  cave  that  had  been  excavated  in  min- 
ing copper  ore.  The  passage  to  it  was  down  a 
shaft  by  means  of  a  ladder.  "  The  horrid  gloom 
of  these  dungeons,"  says  one  who  visited  them, 
"can  be  realized  only  by  those  who  pass  among 
their  solitary  windings.  The  impenetrable  vast- 
ness  supporting  the  awful  mass  above,  impend- 
ing as  if  ready  to  crush  one  to  atoms,  the  drop- 
ping waters  trickling  like  tears  from  its  sides, 
the  unearthly  echoes,  all  conspire  to  strike  the 
beholders  aghast  with  amazement  and  horror." 
Here  from  30  to  100  prisoners  were  crowded 
together  at  night,  their  feet  fastened  to  bars 
of  iron,  and  chains  about  their  necks  attached 
to  beams  above.  The  caves  reeked  with  filth, 
occasioning  incessant  contagious  fevers.  The 
prison  was  the  scene  of  constant  outbreaks,  and 
the  most  cruel  and  degrading  punishments  failed 
to  reform  the  convicts.  Yet  no  less  a  man 
than  the  first  President  Dwight  of  Yale  College, 
who  visited  this  prison  on  his  travels  through 
Connecticut,  points  to  it  in  his  published  letters 
as  an  admirable  prison,  his  approval   resting 


108  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

Largely  on  the  powerful  deterrent  effect  which 
it  must  have  upon  the  minds  of  intending  male- 
factors.   No  more  humane  or  broad-minded  man 

was  alive  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  last  century 
than  President  Dwight;  this  judgment  of  his 
serves  well  as  an  indication  of  the  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  public  opinion  respecting  the 
uses  of  punishment. 

If  it  were  true  that  the  privations  and  severi- 
ties of  punishment  did  effectually  deter  men 
from  entering  upon  the  ways  of  transgression, 
then  the  state  might  be  justified  in  inflicting 
them ;  it  would,  indeed,  be  a  merciful  thing  to 
do.  But  as  a  matter  of  history,  this  method  of 
repressing  crime  has  not  been  found  effectual. 
Increasing  the  severity  of  penalties  has  had  no 
effect  to  diminish  crime.  In  the  days  when 
penalties  have  been  most  severe  and  most  rigor- 
ously inflicted,  crime  has  rapidly  increased. 
All  that  human  ingenuity  can  do  to  make  pun- 
ishment terrible  has  been  done  in  past  genera- 
tions, and  the  outcome  of  it  all  is  recorded  in 
the  maxim,  "Crime  thrives  upon  severe  penal- 
ties." Says  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea:  "The  wheel, 
the  caldron  of  boiling  oil,  burning  alive,  bury- 
ing alive,  flaying  alive,  tearing  apart  with  wild 
horses,  were  the  ordinary  expedients  by  which 
the  criminal  jurist  sought  to  deter  men  by 
frightful  examples  which  would  make   a  pro- 


OUR   BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  109 

found  impression  on  a  not  over-sensitive  popu- 
lation. An  Anglo-Saxon  law  punishes  a  fe- 
male slave  convicted  of  theft  by  making  eighty 
other  females  each  bring  three  pieces  of  wood 
and  burn  her  to  death,  while  each  contributes 
a  fine  besides.  The  Carolina,  or  criminal  code 
of  Charles  V.,  issued  in  1530,  is  a  hideous  cata- 
logue of  blinding,  mutilation,  tearing  with  hot 
pincers,  burning  alive,  and  breaking  on  the 
wheel.  In  England  prisoners  were  boiled  to 
death  even  as  lately  as  1542."  Not  only  were 
these  tortures  practiced  with  a  persistence  which 
seems  to  us  fiendish,  but  the  death  penalty,  in 
one  form  or  another,  was  dealt  out  with  no  re- 
straint. In  the  sixteenth  century  English  law 
punished  by  death  two  hundred  and  sixty -three 
different  offenses,  and  as  late  as  one  hundred 
years  ago  the  list  of  capital  crimes  footed  up 
two  hundred.  If  such  stringent  measures  of 
dealing  with  law-breakers  had  no  deterrent  ef- 
fect; if,  on  the  contrary,  crime  increased  under 
them,  then  the  expectation  of  lessening  the 
amount  of  crime  by  the  severities  of  punishment 
is  proved  by  the  experience  of  the  world  to  be 
a  bootless  expectation.  That  punishment,  when 
reasonable  and  certain,  does  have  some  deter- 
rent effect  upon  criminals  and  intending  crimi- 
nals is  probable ;  but  to  rely  on  this  as  a  main 
reason  for  punishment  would  be  unwise. 


110  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

Another  reason  for  punishment  is  the  pro- 
tection of  society.  It  is  a88Umed  that  certain 
persons  have  become  dangerous  members  <>f  so- 
ciety, mid  must  be  confined  for  the  security  of 
others.  The  man  who  breaks  into  houses  or 
robs  stables  or  burns  down  buildings  or  coun- 
terfeits money  or  waylays  passengers  or  assaults 
women  is  deemed  a  man  unfit  to  be  at  large, 
and  the  law  restrains  him  of  his  liberty.  That 
society  has  a  right  thus  to  protect  itself  is  not 
questioned.  As  I  have  said  already,  these  are 
not  the  only  dangerous  people,  and  the  day  will 
come  when  we  shall  learn  to  deal  with  the 
classes  that  are  most  dangerous;  but  such  of- 
fenses as  I  have  described,  and  many  others  like 
them,  warrant  us  in  putting  the  men  who  com- 
mit them  where  they  will  be  deprived  of  power 
to  do  harm. 

But  when  we  have  got  these  men  under  our 
power,  what  are  we  going  to  do  with  them? 
Has  the  state  —  have  we,  the  people  of  the  state 
—  discharged  our  whole  duty  to  them  when 
we  have  shut  them  up  in  a  secure  and  not  too 
uncomfortable  place  for  a  certain  number  of 
years  as  a  penalty  for  their  offenses? 

"No,"  says  the  practical  citizen;  "that  is 
not  enough;  we  must  make  them  work.  It 
costs  a  good  deal  to  keep  them;  they  must  be 
made  to  pay  for  their  keeping  by  their  labor. 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  111 

The  best  prison  is  the  prison  that  comes  the 
nearest  to  paying  expenses."  But  this  demand 
may  well  be  challenged.  Even  on  the  score  of 
economy,  there  is  a  penny  wisdom  that  is  pound 
foolishness. 

Suppose  that  our  prisons  are  administered 
with  a  steady  view  to  economy  of  administra- 
tion, and  with  slight  regard  for  the  reformation 
of  the  prisoners.  And  suppose  that,  as  a  con- 
sequence, fifty  or  sixty  per  cent,  of  these  pris- 
oners, when  released,  are  worse  men  than  when 
they  were  incarcerated;  suppose  that  they  re- 
turn to  the  ways  of  crime,  and,  after  inflicting 
grave  injuries  upon  society,  some  of  which  may 
be  irreparable,  are  again  apprehended  and  re- 
turned to  prison.  The  damage  which  they  have 
done  while  they  were  at  large  may  be  consider- 
able, and  the  cost  of  arrest  and  trial  and  pre- 
liminary confinement  is  always  heavy.  Such 
a  class  of  men  become  a  heavy  burden  on  the 
community. 

Now  suppose  that,  instead  of  administering 
our  prisons  with  a  view  to  making  money  out 
of  the  prisoners,  we  had  administered  them  with 
a  view  to  making  men  of  them,  and  suppose 
that  as  a  result  of  this  treatment  not  more  than 
twenty  per  cent,  of  them  ultimately  returned  to 
prison;  that  the  rest  of  them  became  industri- 
ous, self-supporting,  honorable  citizens,  —  is  it 


112  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

not  entirely  conceivable  thai  fchia  method  would 
be  found  to  pay  better,  even  in  dollars  and 
cents,  than  that  which  puts  the  principal  em- 
phasis on  financial  returns  from  prison  labor? 

But,  putting  aside  the  question  of  economy, 
there  is  a  sacred  obligation  to  these  prisoners 
which  is  not  discharged  when  we  have  kept 
them  in  confinement  during  their  allotted  terms 
and  made  them  work  for  their  living.  These 
men  are  our  brethren.  Nothing  that  they  have 
done,  nothing  that  they  can  do,  cancels  the  fact 
that  they  are  the  children  of  our  Father  in 
heaven,  and  that  each  one  of  us  owes  to  them 
a  brother's  love.  Jesus  Christ,  the  Elder  Bro- 
ther, said,  "I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto 
me."  By  these  words  he  identifies  himself  with 
every  prisoner.  By  these  words  he  bids  us  dis- 
cern, with  the  eye  of  faith,  elements  of  Christ- 
liness  in  every  prisoner.  In  every  prisoner 
there  are  divine  possibilities.  That  is  his  doc- 
trine, and  it  reveals  our  duty. 

That  this  is  the  dictate  of  Christian  love 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  As  Christian  ministers, 
you  can  preach  no  other  doctrine.  As  Chris- 
tian men  and  women,  we  can  have  no  other 
thought  or  wish  concerning  these  unfortunate 
brethren  of  ours  than  to  help  them  to  become 

g 1    men    and    women,    honorable    and    useful 

members  of  society.      Whatever  we  can  do  to 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  113 

awaken  this  purpose  in  them  we  are  bound  to 
do.  If  we  are  disciples  of  Him  who  came  to 
seek  and  save  the  lost,  these  are  the  hapless 
ones  to  whom  our  love  will  first  go  forth. 

That  such  should  be  the  attitude  of  the  whole 
body  of  Christian  people  toward  these  unfor- 
tunate brethren  is  not  for  one  moment  to  be 
gainsaid.  But  what  should  be  the  attitude  of 
the  state  toward  them?  What  should  the  state, 
through  its  prison  boards  and  prison  officers 
and  prison  discipline,  undertake  to  do  for  these 
people?  What  shall  you  and  I,  speaking  in 
the  name  of  our  Master  Christ,  bid  them  do? 
We  can  have  but  one  message  for  them.  There 
is  only  one  law  of  human  conduct.  The  state 
must  be  simply  Christian  in  its  treatment  of 
prisoners.  Can  it  set  before  itself  any  other 
or  lower  purpose  than  this,  to  reclaim  them,  to 
make  men  of  them,  to  restore  them  to  the  ways 
of  useful  citizenship  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  very 
slight  reflection  will  make  it  clear  that  the  state 
can  entertain  no  lower  aim  than  the  reformation 
of  these  prisoners.  Any  other  policy  would  be 
suicidal.  The  state  depends  for  its  existence  on 
good  citizens.  Lacking  these,  it  ceases  to  be. 
Whatever  else  it  produces,  this  one  product  it 
must  not  fail  to  secure.  Its  system  of  educa- 
tion is  directed  to  this  end.  It  cannot  suffer 
the  standards  of  citizenship  to  be  lowered.    Now 


114  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

in  these  prisoners  it  finds  :i  body  of  men  and 
women  whose  citizenship  is  defective.  They 
are  here  in  confinement  Eor  that  simple  reason. 
They  are  here  in  the  care  of  the  state.  The 
tirst  business  of  the  state,  in  dealing  with  them, 
must  he  to  seek  to  cure  the  defects  of  their  citi- 
zenship  and  to  make  them  sound  and  safe  mem- 
bers of  the  body  politic.  This  is  the  dictate  of 
self-preservation  on  the  part  of  the  state;  to 
fail  of  this  is  to  expose  its  own  life  to  deadly 
peril. 

Every  prison,  then,  must  be  primarily  a  re- 
formatory. Punishment  must  be  ancillary  to 
reformation.  To  vindicate  law,  to  terrify  of- 
fenders, to  seclude  dangerous  persons,  are  sec- 
ondary considerations;  the  main  thing  is  to 
change  defective  citizens  into  good  citizens. 

There  is,  however,  a  considerable  class  of 
penologists  in  these  days  who  deny  that  any 
such  thing  is  possible.  Criminals,  as  a  class, 
they  maintain,  are  born  criminals  and  cannot 
be  otherwise;  crime  is  due  to  some  organic  mal- 
formation or  other;  the  shape  of  the  skull  and 
the  character  of  the  convolutions  of  the  brain, 
and  other  such  anatomical  and  physiological 
conditions  determine  the  man's  character. 
Thus  Dr.  Wines  summarizes  these  specula- 
tions :  — 

"Among  the  anatomical  peculiarities  noticed 


« 
OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  115 

by  students  like  Lombroso,  Ferri,  Beneclikt,  and 
many  others  who  might  be  named,  are  the  shape 
of  the  skull,  including  cranial  asymmetry,  micro- 
cephalism, and  macrocephalism.  A  very  fre- 
quent defect  is  insufficient  cranial  development, 
markedly  in  the  anterior  portion.  A  receding 
forehead  is  common.  Criminals  are  said  to 
have  a  disproportionate  tendency  to  the  sugar- 
loaf  or  pointed  head.  Lombroso  makes  much 
of  the  unusual  depth  of  the  median  occipital 
fossa.  This  is  observable  in  the  skull  of  Char- 
lotte Corday,  belonging  to  the  collection  of 
Prince  Roland  Bonaparte,  which  was  exhibited 
at  the  Social  International  Congress  of  Crimi- 
nal Anthropology  at  Paris  in  1889,  and  gave 
rise  to  a  somewhat  heated  discussion  of  the 
question  whether  she  was  in  fact  a  criminal  or 
a  patriot.  The  same  authority  calls  attention  to 
the  exaggeration  of  the  orbital  arches  and  frontal 
sinuses.  Thieves  are  said  by  one  criminologist 
to  have  small  heads  and  murderers  to  have 
large  heads.  .  .  .  The  shape  of  the  skull  affects 
the  countenance  in  which  have  been  observed 
certain  deformities  of  the  nose  and  ear,  pecul- 
iarities in  the  coloring  of  the  eye,  irregularities 
of  the  teeth,  prominence  of  the  cheek-bones, 
elongation  of  the  lower  jaw,  and  the  like.  .  .  . 
The  prominence  of  the  criminal  ear  has  been 
especially  noted.     Prisoners  are    said  to  have 


116  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

wrinkled  faces:  male  prisoners  have  often  scanty 
beards;  many  hairy  women  are  found  in  prison. 
Red-haired  men  and  women  do  not  seem  to  be 
given  to  the  commission  of  crime.  Similar  re- 
marks might  be  quoted  relative  to  the  skeleton, 
such  as  that  convicts  have  long  arms,  pigeon 
breasts,  and  sloping  shoulders."1 

Something  may  doubtless  be  learned  from 
these  anatomical  investigations  respecting  the 
causes  of  crime,  but  it  is  easy  to  build  theories 
on  narrow  inductions.  What  is  a  criminal? 
He  is  a  man  who  has  broken  some  human  law. 
But  suppose  that  the  law  is  unjust  or  unneces- 
sary. A  man  may  in  such  a  case  be  a  criminal 
without  being  charged  with  moral  obliquity ;  he 
may  even  belong  to  the  noble  army  of  heroes 
and  martyrs.  Take  the  case  alluded  to,  that 
of  Charlotte  Corday.  The  anthropologist  who 
thought  her  a  low  murderer  proved  his  theory 
by  her  skull ;  but  the  others  who  thought  her  a 
heroine,  the  Jeanne  d'Arc  of  the  Revolution,  or 
as  Lamartine,  in  his  glowing  eulogy,  described 
her,  "the  angel  of  the  assassination,"  found  it 
easy  to  show  that  her  skull  was  normal.  The 
political  theories  of  these  investigators  seem  to 
have  warped  their  scientific  conclusions.  By 
such  methods  the  skull  of  John  Brown  or 
William  Lloyd   Garrison  would  be  studied  by 

1  Punishment  and  Reformation,  pp.  232-234. 


OUR  BROTHERS  IN  BONDS  117 

biologists  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  as 
that  of  a  traitor,  and  by  those  north  of  that  line 
as  that  of  a  patriot.  It  is  evident  that  much 
of  this  reasoning  about  physiological  peculiari- 
ties rests  on  a  very  insecure  foundation. 

As  I  have  reflected  upon  it,  one  question  has 
been  forced  upon  me.  Is  it  not  possible  that 
the  physical  defects  of  some  of  these  criminals 
may  have  been  the  occasion  rather  than  the 
cause  of  their  misdoing?  Is  it  not  possible,  at 
least  in  some  cases,  that  their  unprepossessing 
and  repulsive  appearance  has  led  to  a  treatment 
of  them  by  kindred  and  neighbors  which  has 
tended  toward  the  development  in  them  of  un- 
social tempers  and  habits  and  thus  to  a  life  of 
crime  ?  Children  who  are  so  unfortunate  as  to 
be  defective  in  appearance  are  apt  to  be  made 
aware  of  the  fact  and  to  feel  that  they  are  out- 
casts. If  such  a  child  is  sensitive  and  resent- 
ful, such  unsympathetic  and  contemptuous  treat- 
ment will  aggravate  all  his  bad  qualities  and 
stifle  his  better  ones ;  it  will  be  easy  for  him  to 
lose  the  sense  of  social  obligation  and  to  drift 
into  the  ranks  of  the  enemies  of  society.  Thus 
he  becomes  a  criminal,  not  because  the  shape  of 
his  head  or  the  conformation  of  his  countenance 
made  him  one,  but  because  of  the  lack  of  kind- 
ness in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow  men. 

Physical  defect  and  malformation  may  have 


118  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

their  influence  in  producing  criminal  types,  but 
this  explanation  is  in  great  danger  <>f  being 
overworked.  And  it  is  well  for  you  ami  me  to 
be  conservative  in  our  estimate  of  the  number 

of  persons  who  are  born  criminals  and  who  can- 
not be  reclaimed.  I  believe  that  the  number 
of  these  is  small,  that  the  great  majority  of  men 
in  our  jails  and  prisons  are  amenable  to  good 
influences,  and  could  be  saved  if  we  had  only 
faith  and  hope  and  love  enough  to  save  them. 
If  our  prisons  were,  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word,  reformatories;  if  the  energies  of  the  state 
were  bent  to  the  work  of  restoring  these  people 
to  citizenship,  rather  than  to  the  enterprise  of 
making  money  out  of  them,  there  would  be  good 
hope  of  saving  many  of  them.  And  this  is  the 
end  at  which  humane  and  Christian  sentiment 
must  aim.  This  is  the  obligation  which  we 
must  bring  home  to  the  citizens,  in  all  our 
teaching.  Our  prisons  must  be  transformed 
into  reformatories.  It  is  possible  that  we  may 
have  need  of  separate  places  of  confinement  for 
those  who  have  proved  incorrigible,  places  in 
which  there  is  less  resort  to  educational  meth- 
ods; but  the  great  majority  of  our  prisoners  are 
young  men,  concerning  whom  no  such  hopeless 
estimate  can  be  entertained.  The  assumption 
is  that  they  can  be  reformed.  To  this  end  all 
the  discipline  of  the  prison  must  be  directed. 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  119 

There  is  need,  therefore,  of  the  most  careful 
study  of  the  character  of  every  prisoner,  of  his 
history,  his  environment,  his  physical  condition, 
his  habits  of  mind,  that  the  treatment,  so  far  as 
possible,  may  be  adapted  to  his  case.  The  dis- 
cipline of  the  prison  should  be  adapted  to  arouse 
the  intellect,  to  awaken  hope  and  self-respect, 
to  cultivate  habits  of  industry,  to  train  the  eye 
and  the  hand  as  well  as  the  mind,  to  encourage 
thrift  and  providence,  to  strengthen  all  the 
qualities  by  which  a  man  is  fitted  to  maintain 
himself  honestly  in  the  outside  world. 

Respecting  the  details  of  prison  management 
there  is  no  time  to  speak.  There  has  been  much 
discussion  as  to  the  wisdom  of  confining  prisoners 
in  separate  cells,  and  allowing  them  no  inter- 
course with  their  fellow  prisoners.  In  such  a 
prison  every  man's  cell  is  his  workshop  also; 
the  kind  of  labor  in  which  he  is  kept  busy  must 
be  some  simple  handicraft;  in  the  modern  sys- 
tems of  industrial  production  he  cannot  well  be 
trained.  There  is  but  one  such  prison  in  this 
country,  —  that  of  eastern  Pennsylvania,  — 
though  there  are  many  in  Europe.  ""The  advan- 
tages claimed  for  this  type  by  its  advocates," 
says  Professor  Henderson,  "are  these :  it  removes 
the  man  from  evil  associates;  it  trains  him  as 
an  individual;  it  increases  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  the  authorities  and  teachers  and  dimin- 


120  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

ishes  tin'  influence  of  criminals;  there  are  op- 
portunities for  reflection;  the  convict  who  is 
disposed  to  cut  loose  from  the  criminal  class 
cannot  be  identified  afterward  by  professional 
criminals  and  so  led  back  into  evil  ways  by  the 
f<  ;i  r  of  betrayal. " 1  It  may  be  practicable  to  treat 
short-term  prisoners  in  this  way,  but  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  the  best  reformatory  results  can  be 
wrought  out  in  solitary  confinement.  The  trou- 
ble with  the  average  prisoner  is  that  he  is  quite 
too  much  of  an  individualist;  what  he  needs  to 
learn  is  how  to  take  his  place  in  society.  "The 
natural  life  of  man,"  says  the  authority  last 
quoted,  "is  in  cooperation  with  his  fellows,  and 
a  system  should  tend  to  prepare  convicts  for 
freedom."2  Bad  as  the  associations  of  the  con- 
gregate prison  may  be,  there  is  a  possibility 
through  them  of  producing  better  results  than 
by  the  other  method. 

In  the  best  reformatories  industrial  training 
is  always  regarded  as  a  chief  factor  in  reforma- 
tion. Many  of  the  prisoners  are  destitute  of 
skill,  and  have  never  formed  habits  of  industry ; 
their  primary  need  is  the  power  to  do  some  use- 
ful thing  and  the  habit  of  active  employment. 
Such  training  as  the  reformatory  affords  "lays 

1  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Dependent,  Defective,  and 
Delinquent  Classes,  p.  281. 
a  Ibid.,  p.  2S2. 


OUR  BROTHERS  IN  BONDS  121 

a  broad  foundation  for  later  developments  of 
skill  in  special  directions;  it  awakens  the  dull- 
ard to  increased  quickness  of  special  activity; 
it  helps  the  mathematically  deficient  to  master 
form,  number,  proportion;  and  it  enables  the 
passionate  and  ungovernable  to  restrain  and 
direct  their  impulses  of  temper  and  appetite."1 
The  industrial  work  of  the  true  reformatory 
takes,  therefore,  the  character  of  a  trade  school 
rather  than  that  of  a  factory;  the  output  of 
commodities  is  subordinated  to  the  production 
of  manhood. 

In  the  best  reformatories  physical  training  in 
gymnasiums  is  also  provided,  and  many  of  the 
kinds  of  apparatus  found  in  a  sanitarium,  in- 
cluding baths,  massage,  and  electricity,  are  em- 
ployed. Physical  renovation  sometimes  proves 
to  be  a  great  aid  in  the  regeneration  of  charac- 
ter. Opportunities  of  intellectual  training  are 
also  freely  offered ;  everything  is  done  that  can 
be  done  to  awaken  and  stimulate  the  mental 
powers,  and  to  create  purer  tastes  and  larger 
interests.  Mr.  Brockway  sometimes  playfully 
speaks  of  the  Elmira  Reformatory  as  his  uni- 
versity, and  it  does  indeed  furnish  to  the  in- 
mates a  great  deal  of  sound  and  uplifting  edu- 
cation. 

1  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Dependent,  Defective,  and 
Delinquent  Classes,  p.  287. 


122  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

Religious  teaching  of  some  kind  i>  generally 
provided  for  prisons,  but  there  is  reason  t<>  fear 
that  it  is  not  always  of  the  highest  order.  A 
merely  technical  religionism  would  not  be  of 
much  avail;  the  man  needed  for  this  work  is 
the  man  of  deepest  insight,  of  broadest  know- 
ledge of  human  nature,  of  largest  sympathy,  of 
finest  aptitude  to  teach  and  inspire  and  lead. 
The  ordinary  political  methods  do  not  select 
this  kind  of  man  for  such  a  place.  But  this 
much  may  be  said,  —  the  entire  administration 
of  the  true  reformatory  is  Christian  in  its  mo- 
tive and  method;  its  aim  is  to  save  men.  It 
would  seem  to  be  advisable,  therefore,  for  us  as 
Christian  ministers  to  keep  ourselves  in  closest 
sympathy  with  all  such  efforts ;  to  make  it  clear 
that  we  recognize  their  essential  Christianity, 
and  to  forward  them  by  all  our  influence. 

Upon  one  principle  modern  penologists  are 
agreed,  that  of  the  indeterminate,  or  terminable 
sentence.  The  attempt  of  our  legislatures  and 
courts  to  fix  the  term  of  a  sentence  in  such  a 
way  as  to  proportion  the  penalty  to  the  offense 
—  "to  make  the  punishment  fit  the  crime"  — 
is  generally  regarded  as  a  grave  failure.  The 
words  of  Mr.  Charlton  T.  Lewis  strongly  ex- 
press the  absurdity  of  this  attempt.  "We  em- 
ploy our  best  men,  educated  men,  highly  trained 
lawyers  of   incorruptible  mind   and   heart,    the 


OUR   BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  123 

picked  men  of  the  community,  to  sit  as  judges 
on  the  bench,  and  there  to  do  what  God  himself 
could  not  accomplish  because  it  is  a  contradic- 
tion in  terms.  We  ask  them  to  find  the  just 
proportion  between  the  penalties  imposed  and 
the  demerit  of  offenses  and  of  the  men  who  com- 
mitted them  on  the  basis  of  the  evidence  in  vir- 
tue of  which  they  are  convicted.  But  the  testi- 
mony is  inadequate.  If  a  judge  were  omniscient, 
it  would  only  be  by  defying  the  law  which 
placed  him  upon  the  bench  that  he  would  dare 
to  import  into  his  judgment  any  element  but 
that  which  has  found  its  way,  through  the  quar- 
reling and  quibbling  of  counsel  and  of  wit- 
nesses, to  the  record.  And  on  the  basis  of  that, 
is  he  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  intellect,  the 
character,  the  life,  the  future  of  his  fellow  man, 
and  decree  what  his  fate  shall  be?  That  is 
what  we  require  of  him."1  For  this  reason  it 
appears  to  be  more  rational  to  leave  the  ques- 
tion of  the  length  of  the  term  of  imprisonment 
open  to  be  decided  by  the  man  himself.  The 
court  might  fix  a  superior  limit  beyond  which 
the  imprisonment  should  not  extend,  setting  it 
far  enough  away  so  that  there  should  be  ample 
time  for  reformation.  Within  that  period  it 
should  be  understood  that  the  prisoner  has  his 

1  Report  of  Chicago  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Cor- 
rection, and  Philanthropy :  Prevention  of  Crime,  p.  9S. 


124  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

fate  in  his  own  hands.  The  question  simply  is 
whether  he  is  fit  for  citizenship.  When,  by  his 
industry,  his  obedience  to  law,  his  evident  desire 
to  improve  the  advantages  offered  him,  he  seems 
to  be  ready  to  take  his  place  in  society  and 
to  be  a  peaceable  and  useful  citizen,  then,  and 
not  till  then,  he  should  be  permitted  to  go  forth. 
The  prisoner's  record,  carefully  observed,  should 
furnish  the  basis  on  which  he  is  judged.  If 
he  has  become  a  sound  citizen,  the  prison  is  no 
place  for  him,  and  the  state  has  no  reason  for 
keeping  him  there. 

But  the  test  of  the  prison  is  not  adequate. 
"Within  its  walls  the  prisoner  is  safe  from  many 
temptations;  no  matter  how  exemplary  his 
conduct  may  be  under  those  restraints,  we 
can  hardly  tell  whether  he  can  stand  alone  until 
he  has  been  tried.  Therefore  it  is  needful  to 
couple  with  the  terminable  sentence  the  parole 
system.  "According  to  the  principle  of  the 
best  modern  legislation,"  says  Professor  Hender- 
son, "prisoners  may  be  discharged  conditionally 
before  the  expiration  of  the  maximum  term  of 
their  sentence,  if  their  former  lives  and  their 
behavior  in  prison  warrant  the  privilege.  The 
prisoner  is  permitted  to  go  free  on  his  parole, 
on  his  promise  to  avoid  evil  associations  and 
haunts,  to  follow  his  calling  regularly,  and  to 
report  at  certain  stated  intervals.     He  should 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN   BONDS  125 

not  be  released  until  a  place  is  found  for  him 
to  work,  for  idleness  and  want  will  lead  him 
straight  back  to  crime.  The  employer  or  other 
responsible  citizen  or  officer  is  asked  to  confirm 
his  report  of  good  conduct.  At  the  end  of  his 
term  of  sentence,  or  even  before,  he  may  be  dis- 
charged from  surveillance,  upon  the  recommen- 
dation of  the  superintendent.  If  the  convict 
violate  his  parole  and  fall  into  vicious  and  crim- 
inal ways,  he  may  be  arrested  and  returned  for 
further  incarceration  and  discipline."1 

It  must  be  admitted  that  even  this  method 
is  liable  to  abuses.  No  method  can  be  insured 
against  them.  Unscrupulous  and  corrupt  men 
in  prison  boards  or  wardenships  may  release 
unfit  men.  The  personal  influence  of  the  friends 
of  prisoners  may  be  allowed  more  weight  than 
the  facts  of  the  prisoner's  record.  Only  by  the 
greatest  conscientiousness  and  firmness  on  the 
part  of  the  tribunal  which  grants  the  parole, 
and  the  most  intelligent  and  vigilant  supervision 
of  the  prisoner  after  he  is  set  free,  can  the  best 
results  be  secured.  But  experience  seems  to 
show  that  this  method  of  conditional  liberation 
is  wise  and  salutary.  Men  are  stimulated  and 
encouraged  by  it  to  form  good  habits,  to  choose 
safe  associations,  and  to  lead  industrious  and 
honorable  lives. 

1  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Dependent,  Defective,  and 
Delinquent  Classes,  pp.  292,  293. 


126  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

Certainly,  tli.'  whole  effect  upon  :i  prisoner  of 
a  regimen  which  assumes  that  he  is  t<>  ln-come 
a  srood  citizen,  which  directs  all  its  efforts  to 
the  task  of  helping'  him  to  become  a  good  citi- 
zen, and  which  sends  him  out  into  the  world 
with  the  expectation  and  the  hope  that  he  will 
be  a  good  citizen,  must  be  better  than  that  of 
a  method  which  simply  confines  him,  for  a  term 
of  years,  as  a  retribution  for  the  wrong  which 
he  has  done;  which  makes  as  much  money  out 
of  him  as  it  can  while  he  is  in  prison,  and  then 
opens  its  doors  and  drives  him  out  into  a  world 
which  is  afraid  of  him,  without  knowing  or  car- 
ing much  what  becomes  of  him. 

By  this  method  the  care  of  discharged  prison- 
ers becomes  part  of  the  business  of  the  state, 
and  there  is  less  need  of  voluntary  organizations 
for  this  purpose.  There  will  always  be  need, 
however,  of  the  exercise  of  a  Christian  friend- 
ship toward  persons  coming  forth  from  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  prison,  with  a  cloud  upon  their 
reputation  and  the  consciousness  of  the  suspi- 
cion and  distrust  of  their  fellow  men.  As  things 
now  are,  it  is  the  expectation  of  the  penitentiary 
managers  that  fully  fifty  per  cent,  of  those  serv- 
ing their  first  term  in  prison  will  return  sooner 
or  later;  the  percentage  of  those  serving  their 
second  or  third  term  is  much  greater.  This 
may  seem  to  some  clear  proof  that  these  persons 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN  BONDS  127 

are  born  criminals,  but  the  explanation  in  the 
cases  of  many  of  them  is  much  simpler.  If  we 
add  to  the  fact  of  the  contamination  of  character 
and  the  loss  of  self-respect  which  they  have 
suffered  in  prison  the  other  deadly  fact  that 
when  they  come  out  into  the  world  they  are  apt 
to  have  no  friends  and  no  opportunities  of  self- 
support,  that  the  avenues  to  honest  thrift  are 
generally  closed  to  them,  we  shall  not  wonder 
that  they  fall  back  into  the  ways  of  crime. 

A  letter  written  by  one  of  these  men  recently 
discharged  in  my  own  city  to  one  who  was 
known  to  be  a  friend  of  the  prisoner  has  been 
placed  in  my  hands.  Part  of  it  I  will  give  you, 
in  its  very  words.  Its  artless  directness  and 
pathos  are  more  convincing  than  any  rhetorical 
improvements  which  I  could  make :  — 

"The  main  reason  for  applying  to  you  is  that 
I  am  right  now  under  desperate  circumstances. 
I  have  honestly  and  earnestly  searched  for  hon- 
est employment  all  over  this  state  and  other 
states.  I  don't  care  how  hard  the  work  is  or 
what  it  may  be  so  long  as  I  can  support  myself 
by  it,  so  if  you  know  any  one  you  can  send  me 
to  with  any  possible  show  of  a  job,  you  will  be 
doing  me  a  great  kindness  and  God  knows  I 
will  heartily  appreciate  and  will  make  it  my 
business  to  show  you  that  I  heartily  appreciate. 
It  is  my  earnest  desire  to  do  what  is  honorable 


128  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

and  right,  bul  as  my  friend  may  have  fcold 

you,  I  have  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  have  served 
time  in  the  Ohio  State's  Prison  and  this  seems 
to  keep  me  back.  People  as  a  rule  do  not  want 
to  employ  an  ex-prisoner.  Now  all  I  want  is 
just  one  show  or  chance  to  redeem  myself  and 
show  to  you  and  those  who  employ  me  that  I 
will  be  an  honest,  honorable  man  if  people  will 
only  let  me. 

"I  have  been  turned  down  so  much  here  and 
there,  and  by  some  who  profess  to  be  Christian 
people,  until  I  have  almost  lost  all  confidence  in 
all  people.  I  am  a  man  that  believes  in  law 
and  order,  and  I  believe  that  a  man  should  be 
punished  for  continual  wrong-doing,  and  I  was 
fearfully  punished  for  all  I  done,  and  my  God 
knows  I  don't  want  such  a  horrible  thing  to 
come  into  my  life  again.  I  am  ready  and  will- 
ing to  do  anything  to  escape  or  get  away  from 
anything  that  would  lead  me  up  to  a  return  of 
such  things;  but  now,  see  here;  when  a  man 
puts  forth  his  best  efforts  to  get  honest  employ- 
ment, and  it  is  his  real  desire  to  do  right  and 
he  is  in  need,  but  is  turned  down  all  around,  the 
devil  keeps  digging  at  him,  suggesting  this  or 
that,  —  I  tell  you  it  is  a  severe  trial  when  a 
man  is  idle  and  in  need.  I  am  trying  to  escape 
from  the  works  of  the  devil  and  his  service,  for 
oh  my !  how  well  I  know  what  they  are,  —  no- 


OUR  BROTHERS  IN   BONDS  129 

thing  but  woe,  suffering,  misery,  disgrace,  con- 
tempt. I  want  to  get  into  something  better, 
and  it  does  seem  impossible  for  me  to  get  up  to 
that  alone;  I  must  have  help,  and  I  am  sure 
that  I  am  willing  to  lift  my  part  of  the  load." 

If  any  man  or  woman  can  listen  to  this  cry 
of  a  struggling  soul  without  feeling  that  some- 
thing is  dreadfully  wrong  here,  and  that  we 
who  are  the  servants  and  followers  of  Jesus 
Christ  have  a  responsibility  in  the  matter,  no 
words  that  I  could  use  would  make  the  case 
plainer.  So  long  as  the  prison  system  now  gen- 
erally in  use  is  maintained,  and  the  state  con- 
tents itself  with  punishing  criminals  instead  of 
reforming  them,  and  dismisses  them  at  the  end 
of  their  term  with  no  provision  for  their  future, 
a  heavy  responsibility  will  rest  upon  the  Chris- 
tian men  and  women  of  the  community  for  the 
care  of  these  most  unfortunate  people.  I  can- 
not stay  to  indicate  the  ways  in  which  this 
friendship  can  be  extended;  the  circumstances 
of  different  communities  are  so  unlike  that  it  is 
not  easy  to  make  practical  suggestions.  I  only 
lay  it  upon  your  consciences  that  those  coming 
out  of  prison,  not  less  than  those  who  are  in 
prison,  are  in  deep  need  of  the  saving  love  of 
all  who  have  the  mind  of  Christ. 

Turning  now,  for  a  moment,  toward  those  at 
the  other  end  of  this  dolorous  way,  those  who 


130  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

are  standing  upon  the  threshold  of  a  criminal 
career,  we  arc  in  the  presence  of  an  opportunity 
more  hopeful  and  an  obligation  more  urgent. 
It  is  probable  that  the  vast  majority  of  those 
who  fall  under  the  censure  of  the  criminal  law 
ought  not,  upon  their  first  offense,  to  be  per- 
mitted to  go  to  prison ;  it  would  be  far  better 
for  them  and  for  society  if  they  could  be  spared 
this  humiliation.  They  have  violated  the  law, 
and  they  ought  to  be  made  to  feel  its  power, 
but  there  are  better  ways  of  dealing  with  them 
than  to  shut  them  up  in  prison.  Massachusetts 
has  substituted  for  the  imprisonment  of  such 
misdemeanants  a  probation  system.  The  of- 
fender is  tried,  and  if  convicted,  the  sentence  is 
suspended;  he  is  placed  under  the  custody  of  a 
probation  officer,  whose  business  it  is  to  look 
after  him  and  to  whom  he  must  report.  "The 
court,"  says  Mr.  Spalding,  "bids  them  go  and 
sin  no  more,  and  requires  its  officers  to  see  that 
they  do  so.  The  continuance  of  the  probation- 
er's liberty  depends  on  the  use  he  makes  of  it. 
This  is  not  leniency.  It  is  not  mercy.  It  is  a 
practical,  business-like  way  of  dealing  with  the 
criminal.  The  probation  officer  is  his  custo- 
dian, as  much  as  a  warden  could  be,  and  the 
impending  imprisonment  is  more  salutary  and 
more  restraining  than  actual  confinement,  in 
most  cases."     The  prison,  under  the  best  influ- 


OUR  BROTHERS  IN   BONDS  131 

ences,  is  apt  to  be  a  school  of  crime.  First  of- 
fenders, who  are  inclined,  when  they  enter  the 
place,  to  turn  the  discipline  to  good  account, 
are  often  discouraged  by  the  influences  sur- 
rounding them.  The  hardened  and  hopeless 
criminals  assure  them  that  there  is  no  use  in 
trying  to  reform ;  that  the  face  of  society  will 
be  set  against  them  when  they  go  out ;  that  they 
might  as  well  make  up  their  minds  to  be  out- 
casts. Many  who  are  sent  to  prison  for  some 
offense  which  does  not  represent  their  habitual 
conduct  come  forth  from  these  influences  far 
worse  than  when  they  first  encountered  them. 
The  prison  is  to  multitudes  a  savor  of  death 
unto  death.  For  this  reason  it  is  greatly  to  be 
wished  that  first  offenders  might  be  spared  these 
contaminating  associations.  It  is  often  said 
that  the  worst  use  to  which  you  can  put  a  man 
is  to  hang  him.  The  next  worse  use  to  which 
you  can  put  him  is  to  shut  him  up  in  prison  as 
the  associate  of  many  who  have  become  habitual 
criminals,  and  who  are  likely  to  draw  him  into 
the  same  downward  road.  My  own  strong  be- 
lief is  that  this  method  of  probation  is  likely 
to  be  largely  extended;  that  a  considerable 
percentage  of  those  now  incarcerated  will  by 
and  by  be  kept  out  of  prison,  and  guarded  and 
guided  into  better  life.  A  reformatory,  whose 
methods  are  directed  to  the  restoration  of  man- 


132  SOCIAL   .s.M.VATION 

hood,  is  far  better  than  t he  ordinary  peniten- 
tiary Eor  mosl  of  these  offenders;  but  even  for 
those  whom  we  commit  to  the  reformat < tries  it 
is  not  improbable  that  a  large  majority  would 
win  their  manhood  more  rapidly  and  more  se- 
curely under  the  vigilant  tutelage  of  wise  and 
kind  officials,  in  the  school  of  the  outside  world. 
The  one  truth  that  comes  home  to  us  as  we 
study  this  great  class  of  social  delinquents  is 
the  truth  that  the  state,  in  dealing  with  them, 
has  upon  its  hands  a  task  of  great  difficulty. 
If  it  could  be  content  with  punishing  criminals, 
that  would  be  a  comparatively  easy  matter. 
But  reclaiming  them,  saving  them,  making  men 
of  them,  is  quite  another  thing.  How  plain  it 
is  that  for  this  great  service  we  must  have  men 
of  the  highest  and  strongest  character.  The 
warden  of  a  prison,  the  superintendent  of  a  re- 
formatory, ought  to  be  the  best  man  in  the  state. 
The  highest  are  not  too  high,  the  wisest  are  not 
too  wise,  for  this  sublime  undertaking.  "Hon- 
est he  must  be,"  says  Dr.  Wines,  "and  kind, 
for  if  not  kind,  he  is  apt  to  be  lacking  in  per- 
sonal bravery.  But  if  he  is  to  be  the  centre 
and  mainspring  of  educational  and  reformatory 
influences,  he  must  be  unsurpassed  as  a  teacher 
and  an  example  of  purity.  The  work  of  uplift- 
ing the  degraded  is  one  which  calls  for  the  high- 
est qualities  of  soul  and  brain.      It  is  a  work 


OUR  BROTHERS   IN  BONDS  133 

which  it  would  not  have  shamed  Phillips  Brooks 
to  have  undertaken  at  Charlestown  or  Concord, 
and  until  we  have  the  best  men  in  this  position 
we  cannot  hope  for  the  best  results.  When  the 
personal  fate  of  a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred 
men  depends  on  the  application  to  duty,  the  in- 
sight, the  moral  honesty  of  another  man  clothed 
with  almost  despotic  power,  it  will  not  answer 
to  give  that  power  into  the  possession  of  one 
who  does  not  understand  his  responsibilities  or 
who  is  unequal  to  them."  1 

Consider,  also,  what  it  means  to  put  the 
whole  force  of  an  institution  devoted  to  such 
ends  into  the  hands  of  the  political  spoilsmen 
and  let  them  ravage  it  every  two  or  three  years, 
removing  every  man  who  could  have  gained  any 
qualification  for  his  work,  and  filling  his  place 
with  the  henchman  of  some  political  boss. 
Could  any  penitentiary  do  the  kind  of  work  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking  under  such  a  regi- 
men as  this?  The  subjection  of  our  prisons  to 
this  corrupt  domination,  the  use  of  them  as 
tramping  grounds  and  camping  grounds  for 
those  who  make  a  business  of  politics,  is  itself 
a  gigantic  crime  against  civilization. 

I  have  only  touched,  here  and  there  on  the 
surface,  a  subject  too  large  to  be  discussed  with 
any  thoroughness  in  a  single  lecture.     But  I 

1  Punishment  and  Reformation,  pp.  227,  228. 


134  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

hope  that  I  have  enabled  you  to  see  that  it  is  a 
subject  which  the  Christian  church  and  the 
Christian  minister  cannot  ignore.     The  disciples 

of  Him  who  came  to  seek  and  save  the  lost  have 
no  more  urgent  business  on  their  hands  than 
that  of  ministering  in  his  name  to  his  brethren 
in  prison. 


SOCIAL  VICES 

We  are  to  study  at  this  time  three  prevalent 
forms  of  social  vice:  what  is  known,  by  emi- 
nence, as  the  social  evil,  the  gambling  mania, 
and  the  curse  of  drunkenness.  It  is  evident 
that  the  Christian  pulpit  cannot  ignore  these 
portentous  forms  of  social  disorder.  There  is 
no  community,  however  rural  or  remote,  in 
which  their  ravages  are  not  found;  there  is  no 
congregation,  however  select  or  sheltered,  in 
which  their  baneful  influences  are  not  felt. 
The  work  of  salvation,  as  it  will  present  itself 
to  you  in  your  ministry,  in  its  practical  aspects, 
will  be,  quite  largely,  the  work  of  rescuing  men 
from  the  bondage  of  these  vices,  and  protecting 
them  against  their  insidious  temptations.  Some 
of  the  most  pathetic  appeals  to  which  you  will 
ever  listen  will  come  to  you  from  men  and 
women,  beaten  and  humiliated  and  hopeless  in 
their  struggle  with  these  forms  of  evil  habit, 
begging  you  to  tell  them  what  they  must  do  to 
be  saved.     You  have  the  gospel  message  to  give 


136  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

them  then,  and  nothing  can  supersede  that. 
The  one  thing  needful  for  every  one  of  them  is 
that  he  shall  fully  understand  the  nature  of  the 
help  within  his  reach,  — the  grace  that  waits  to 
give  him  the  victory  in  his  struggle,  the  bless- 
edness of  the  forgiving  grace,  the  reinforcement 
of  his  will  which  will  come  to  him  through  the 
realization  of  the  constant  presence  of  an  al- 
mighty Friend. 

The  gospel  remedy  for  these  social  vices  —  the 
primary  remedy  —  is  the  invigoration  of  the 
manhood,  so  that  it  shall  be  able  to  resist  and 
overcome  the  temptation.  I  fear  that  the  im- 
portance of  this  has  been  greatly  underrated,  of 
late,  by  social  reformers.  The  entire  stress  of 
the  demand  for  reform  has  been  laid  upon 
changing  the  environment,  rather  than  upon 
strengthening:  the  character.  The  efforts  of  the 
great  multitude  of  philanthropic  laborers  in  this 
field  have  been  concentrated  upon  the  problem  of 
getting  temptation  out  of  the  way  of  men,  rather 
than  upon  the  problem  of  equipping  men  to 
resist  temptation.  This  has  gone  so  far  as  to 
weaken,  perceptibly,  the  sense  of  moral  respon- 
sibility on  the  part  of  those  addicted  to  vicious 
habits,  and  to  make  them  feel  that  they  cannot 
be  expected  to  live  upright  lives  so  long  as  any 
chances  of  indulgence  are  open  to  them.  The 
impression  made  by  the  popular  presentation  of 


SOCIAL   VICES  137 

any  of  these  reforms  upon  the  mind  of  a  drunk- 
ard or  a  gambler  or  a  libertine  would  be  that 
the  community  or  the  public  officials  or  the  pur- 
veyors of  vice  are  to  blame  for  his  degradation ; 
that  he  is  a  victim,  more  than  a  sinner;  that 
there  is  no  very  loud  call  on  him  to  be  a  man  so 
long  as  there  are  opportunities  of  being  a  brute. 
It  is  a  terrible  mistake  to  permit  any  such  im- 
pression to  be  made  upon  the  mind  of  any  man 
who  has  fallen  into  evil  habits.  The  one  thing 
for  him  to  do  is  to  stand  and  fight  for  his  man- 
hood. He  is  not  saved  by  the  removal  of  temp- 
tation. He  is  only  saved  when  he  becomes  man 
enough  to  face  and  conquer  the  temptation. 
There  is  strength  for  him  by  which  he  may 
stand  and  overcome.  The  grace  of  God  is  suffi- 
cient for  him ;  the  strength  of  God  is  made  per- 
fect in  his  weakness.  There  is  no  promise  that 
temptation  shall  be  wholly  removed.  It  will 
never  in  this  world  be  wholly  removed  from  any 
man's  path.  To  make  his  salvation  depend 
entirely  or  mainly  on  the  removal  of  temptation 
is  to  expose  his  soul  to  mortal  peril.  And  I 
cannot  help  feeling  that  the  effect  of  the  tem- 
perance propaganda,  especially,  for  the  last  forty 
years,  has  largely  been  to  undermine  character, 
to  disparage  the  moral  forces,  and  to  turn  the 
thoughts  of  men  away  from  the  central  truth  of 
the  whole  question. 


138  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

This  is  not  to  Bay  that  the  environment  i>  <>f 
no  importance.  It  is  of  great  importance,  and 
we  are  bound  to  make  it  as  favorable  as  we  can 
to  virtue.  If  we  pray  that  we  may  not  be  led 
into  temptation,  we  must  do  what  we  can  to 
lessen  the  temptations  that  surround  every 
man.  Something  can  be  done  in  this  direction 
by  law,  as  we  shall  see.  We  must  work  at  both 
ends  of  the  problem.  The  mistake  of  which  I 
am  speaking  is  a  mistake  of  proportion,  a  mis- 
take of  emphasis.  We  have  been  putting  the 
stress  of  our  teaching  in  the  wrong  place.  We 
have  harped  and  hammered  so  constantly  upon 
the  saloon  and  the  liquor  traffic  and  the  restric- 
tions of  law  that  the  moral  aspects  of  the  case 
have  been  pushed  far  into  the  background,  and 
the  responsibility  of  every  man  for  his  own  con- 
duct, the  sin  of  brutal  indulgence,  the  possibility 
and  duty  of  being  a  man,  and  the  truth  that 
God  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  who 
turn  from  their  evil  ways,  have  been  treated  as 
secondary  and  subordinate  motives.  They  are 
not  secondary  and  subordinate  motives  ;  they 
are  primary  and  paramount  motives  ;  and  the 
method  of  reform  which  reverses  the  divine 
order,  and  makes  that  least  which  is  greatest 
and  that  greatest  which  is  least,  is  bound  to 
have  disastrous  consequences.  The  failures  in 
our  measures  of  social  reform,  so  far  as  these 


SOCIAL  VICES  139 

vices  are  concerned,  may  be,  at  least  in  part, 
attributed  to  the  faulty  perspective  in  the  pop- 
ular teaching. 

The  mistake  may  be  due,  in  part,  to  the  aber- 
rations of  the  Zeitgeist,  who  has  been  somewhat 
out  of  his  head  for  the  last  generation  or  so, 
having  got  hold  of  some  crazy  and  incomplete 
theories  of  evolution,  and  being  inclined  to  re- 
gard the  environment  as  the  sole  and  decisive 
factor  in  the  development  of  life.  But  he  is 
now  coming  to  himself  and  beginning  to  admit 
that  the  spiritual  forces  have  their  part  to  play 
in  the  great  drama;  and  while  he  will  never 
suffer  us  again  to  neglect  the  power  of  circum- 
stance, our  thought  will  not,  I  trust,  be  so  en- 
thralled by  it  as  it  has  been  during  the  decades 
just  past.  In  the  period  during  which  you  will 
exercise  your  ministry,  it  may  be  less  difficult 
than  it  has  been  in  recent  years  to  make  social 
reformers  see  that  the  truth  which  must  never 
be  minimized  or  blurred  is  the  responsibility  of 
every  man  for  his  own  manhood,  and  his  duty, 
in  the  presence  of  whatever  hostile  influences, 
to  fight  the  good  fight  and  overcome. 

I.  When  we  come  to  consider  the  nature  and 
the  magnitude  of  that  form  of  vice  which  is 
known  as  the  social  evil,  and  the  relation  thereto 
of  the  Christian  church  and  the  Christian  pulpit, 
we  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  a  problem 


140  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

which  the  pulpit  must  treat  with  great  discre- 
tion. I  low  much  can  be  done  by  law  for  the 
abatement  of  this  evil  I  do  not  clearly  know. 
It  seems  to  be  a  monstrous  thing  that  sections 
of  our  cities  should  be  overrun  with  this  curse; 
that  there  should  be  large  areas  in  which  a 
decent  woman  cannot  appear  by  night  without 
danger  nor  a  reputable  man  without  suspicion. 
The  resolute  attempt  of  Dr.  Parkhurst  to  abol- 
ish these  plague  spots  was  the  dictate  of  sound 
moral  feeling.  But  it  is  asserted  by  those  who 
ought  to  know  that  these  heroic  measures  spread 
the  infection  instead  of  stamping  it  out,  and 
that  the  conditions  in  New  York  have  been  far 
worse  since  that  day  than  they  were  before. 
This  may  have  been  the  result  of  a  failure  to 
persist  in  this  drastic  treatment ;  it  may  be  that 
a  resolute  and  continuous  effort  to  suppress  vile 
houses  would  succeed  in  ridding  the  community 
of  them.  A  recent  article  in  the  "  Outlook," 
narrating  the  battle  of  Father  Doyle  and  the 
Paulist  Fathers  with  the  social  evil  on  the  West 
Side  of  New  York,  seems  to  show  that  when  the 
people  of  the  vicinage  are  thoroughly  aroused, 
and  when  the  police  authorities  can  be  de- 
pended on,  the  more  flagrant  exhibitions  of  this 
iniquity  can  be  prevented.  But  such  measures 
can  be  effectual  only  when  all  sections  of  the 
city  are  united  in  the  effort;  otherwise  the  pest 


SOCIAL  VICES  141 

is  only  driven  from  one  ward  to  another,  and 
the  curse  is  simply  shifted. 

What  law  can  do,  in  existing  conditions,  for 
the  abatement  of  this  evil  is  not  altogether  clear. 
But  it  seems  that  in  civilized  communities  it 
might,  at  least,  be  prevented  from  flaunting  its 
indecencies  in  the  streets  and  displaying  its 
enticements  at  doors  and  windows.  I  do  not 
think  that  we  shall  have  risen  to  a  very  high 
level  of  morality,  when  we  have  merely  deter- 
mined that  the  public  highways  shall  not  be  the 
market-places  of  lust  and  shame,  and  that  snares 
shall  not  be  openly  set,  in  the  sight  of  every 
passer-by,  for  unwary  feet.  It  is  ridiculous  to 
say  that  the  plying  of  this  accursed  traffic  in 
the  streets  cannot  be  prevented.  Such  open 
allurements  exist  in  no  city  without  the  conni- 
vance of  the  police,  and  can  be  abolished  in 
any  city  whenever  the  police  authorities  choose 
to  abolish  them.  So  much  as  this  we  may 
demand  of  the  law  in  every  community,  and  the 
accomplishment  of  this  would  be  a  great  gain 
in  many  of  our  communities. 

One  measure,  in  alleviation  of  the  injuries 
wrought  by  this  iniquity,  may  be  confidently 
supported  by  all  of  us,  —  that  is,  the  establish- 
ment and  maintenance  of  places  of  refuge  in 
which  the  women  and  girls  who  are  ready  to 
abandon  their  evil  life  may  be   received   and 


142  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

oared  for.     It  is  a  dreadful  fate  in  which  the 
woman  is  involved  who  finds  herself  swept  down- 
ward in  the  mad  currents  of  this  life  of  degra- 
dation ;  to  escape  from  it    is  not  easy  ;   it    is 
rarely  the  case  that  there  are  any  kindred  who 
will  offer  her  a  shelter ;  few  decent  homes  are 
open  to  her ;  she  is  apt  to  feel,  in  her  remorseful 
moments,  that  she  has  made  her  bed  and  must 
lie  in  it.     Doubtless  to  many  of  these  hapless 
children  of  sin  there  often  comes  a  strong  sense 
of  the  misery  and  woe  of  it  all  and  a  deep  wish 
for  some  way  out  of  it,  but  the  way  of  deliver- 
ance does  not  appear.     Such   a  door  of  hope 
ought  to  be  opened  and  held  open  in  every  large 
city.     It  may  be  the  verdict  of  experience  that 
not  many  of  those  who  enter  upon  this  horrible 
path  ever  leave  it  until  health  is  gone  and  life 
is  blasted ;  but  the  grace  of  salvation  is  for  the 
few  even  when  the  many  refuse  it,  and  if  by 
any  means  we  can  save  some,  we  must  not  neg- 
lect to  provide  a  way  of  salvation.     Such  work 
is,  I  believe,  more  hopeful  than  many  persons 
think;   the  experience   of  those  who  have  had 
much  to  do  with  it  gives  good  ground  of  hope. 
The    Florence  Crittenton   Homes,   which  have 
been  established  in  many  cities,  largely  through 
the  faith  and  devotion  of  one  man,  have  a  bright 
record  to  show  of  lives  that  have  been  rescued 
from  this  pit  and  made  clean  and  pure.     It  must 


SOCIAL  VICES  143 

be  remembered  that  many  young  girls  are  drawn 
into  these  currents  almost  unaware;  they  have 
been  betrayed  and  abandoned ;  a  place  of  refuge 
in  the  day  of  their  great  trouble,  a  helping  hand 
held  out  to  them  just  then,  may  keep  them  from 
destruction.  For  the  lack  of  such  succor  in  the 
hour  when  they  need  it  most,  many  souls  are 
lost. 

The  Christian  people  of  every  considerable 
community  ought,  therefore,  to  see  to  it  that 
such  a  place  of  refuge  is  provided  for  those  who 
will  turn  from  their  evil  ways  and  live.  The 
disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  must  not  forget  the 
attitude  of  their  Master  toward  persons  of  this 
class ;  they  must  not  fail  to  remember  that  it  is 
the  lost  that  he  came  to  seek  and  save. 

You  will  find,  however,  my  brethren,  as  you 
study  this  question,  year  after  year,  the  convic- 
tion deepening  in  your  minds  that  such  checks 
and  palliations  as  we  have  been  considering 
hardly  touch  the  surface  of  this  vast  social  ulcer. 
What  law  can  do  to  prevent  its  shameless  effront- 
eries, what  philanthropy  can  do  to  rescue  its 
miserable  victims,  are  but  slight  mitigations  of 
an  enormous  and  growing  evil.  In  some  way 
we  must  find  the  sources  of  the  evil  and  apply 
our  remedies  there. 

What  are  the  sources  of  this  evil  ?  What  are 
the  social  conditions  from  which  it   naturally 


ill  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

Hows?  Doubtless  many  causes  conspire  to  pro- 
duce it,  but  one,  at  least,  seems  to  me  of  grave 
importance.  I  refer  to  the  growing  unwilling- 
ness on  the  part  of  young  men  to  assume  the 
responsibility  of  a  family  and  of  young  women 
to  take  the  risks  and  the  tasks  of  maternity.  A 
large  number  of  the  young  people  of  the  more 
cultivated  classes  seem  to  shrink  more  and  more 
from  family  life,  or  at  least  to  defer,  to  later 
and  later  periods,  the  setting  up  of  the  home. 
The  standards  of  social  decency  and  respecta- 
bility are  constantly  rising;  the  amount  of 
money  supposed  to  be  necessary  to  begin  the 
married  life  increases  decade  by  decade.  Young 
men  say  that  they  will  not  marry  until  they  are 
able  to  support  a  wife  in  good  style,  and  as  the 
wealth  of  the  land  increases  and  their  neighbors 
live  more  and  more  luxuriously,  the  phrase  "in 
good  style  "  is  constantly  undergoing  changes  of 
meaning.  Young  women  become  accustomed 
in  their  parental  homes  to  a  certain  amount  of 
comfort  and  of  leisure,  and  they  do  not  relish 
the  thought  of  beginning  to  live  more  plainly 
and  more  laboriously  in  homes  of  their  own. 
Thus  an  increasing  number  of  young  men  and 
women  decline  or  postpone  marriage.  It  is  true 
that  the  family  life  does  require  of  both  men 
and  women  the  relinquishment  of  a  certain 
amount  of  liberty,  the  assumption  of  new  bur- 


SOCIAL  VICES  145 

dens,  the  incurring  of  pain  and  privation  and 
sacrifice.  The  unwillingness  to  meet  these  de- 
mands is  the  prime  cause  of  the  diminution  in 
the  number  of  marriages  which  the  census  re- 
ports to  us.  And  one  of  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences is  the  increase  of  social  immorality. 
The  condition  of  France,  a  prosperous  and  lux- 
urious nation,  where  the  number  of  marriages 
is  lessening  and  the  birth-rate  is  decreasing,  and 
social  vice  is  assuming  appalling  dimensions, 
points  out  the  path  in  which  the  nation  must 
travel  whose  young  men  and  women  undervalue 
the  family  relation. 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  remedy  for 
this  social  disease  but  the  restoration  of  a  more 
wholesome  sentiment  concerning  this  whole  sub- 
ject of  family  life.  The  morality  of  what  we 
call  our  respectable  classes  needs  toning  up  all 
along  this  line.  Many  parents  discourage  the 
marriage  of  their  sons  and  daughters  under  con- 
ditions which  would  be  far  more  favorable  than 
those  under  which  they  themselves  set  out  in  life 
bravely  and  happily.  They  are  unwilling  that 
their  children  should  meet  the  responsibilities 
which  they  met  and  bear  the  burdens  which  they 
bore,  and  in  meeting  and  bearing  which  they 
won  their  own  manhood  and  womanhood.  Many 
a  father  refuses  his  daughter  to  a  young  man 
whose  circumstances  and  prosperity  are  far  more 


146  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

Favorable  than  were  his  when  he  was  married; 
many  a  mother  warns  her  son  against  alliance 
with  ;i  girl  whose  heart  is  as  true  and  brave  as 
hers  was  when  she  set  up  her  own  home.  The 
father  and  mother,  in  their  prosperity,  have  lost 
their  sense  of  the  value  of  character;  they  have 
come  to  put  far  too  much  emphasis  on  the  mere 
accidents  of  life.  For  it  is  true  not  only  of  a 
man's  life,  but  of  the  life  of  a  man  and  woman 
together,  that  "  it  consisteth  not  in  the  abun- 
dance of  the  things  that"  they  possess.  They 
can  be  happy  and  true  and  brave  with  but  few 
things.  To  begin  together  as  their  parents 
began,  to  live  simply  and  frugally,  to  face  the 
problems  of  life  without  flinching,  to  exercise 
their  wits  together  over  a  limited  menage,  what 
is  this  but  the  discipline  in  which  all  the  best 
qualities  of  life  are  won? 

The  habitual  thought  of  the  entire  commu- 
nity upon  this  subject  is  largely  perverted  by 
the  practical  materialism  which  prevails.  The 
sacred  function  of  the  family  is  dishonored  when 
it  is  made  subordinate  to  the  demands  of  style 
and  the  claims  of  luxury  and  of  leisure.  It  is 
a  good  for  which  right-minded  human  beings 
should  be  willing  to  pay  in  toil  and  sacrifice. 
No  great  good  is  obtainable  at  a  lower  price; 
and  the  refusal  to  accept  marriage  and  parent- 
age on  these  terms  is  a  cowardly  infidelity  to 


SOCIAL  VICES  147 

the  highest  claims,  which  nature  is  sure  to  pun- 
ish. 

I  have  no  doubt,  for  my  part,  that  this  is  one 
of  the  underlying  causes  of  the  prevalence  of  the 
social  evil  whose  ravages  in  society  we  are  now 
considering.  Other  conspiring  causes  may  be 
found  in  the  unsettled  economic  conditions,  and 
in  the  transition  from  old  to  new  philosophies 
of  life,  but  the  deeper  reason  is  the  growing 
love  of  ease  and  luxury,  the  growing  subser- 
viency to  the  demands  of  style  and  fashion,  the 
growing  disposition  among  our  prosperous 
classes  to  exalt  the  accidents  of  life  above  its 
essential  values.  It  is  a  subtle  form  of  sin,  but 
it  is  visited  with  a  terrible  penalty.  The  plague 
which  breaks  out  in  the  purlieus  is  due  to  the 
atmospheric  poison  which  is  engendered  on  the 
avenues.  The  only  effectual  cure  for  this  social 
ulcer  is  the  tonic  which  shall  invigorate  the 
moral  sense  of  the  influential  classes  and  teach 
us  all  that  a  man  is  more  precious  than  fine 
gold,  and  that  a  home  is  not  the  product  of  the 
upholsterer. 

The  relation  of  the  pulpit  to  this  question  will 
therefore  be  less  obvious  and  immediate  than  to 
some  of  the  other  questions  with  which  you  are 
dealing.  It  will  not  be  wise  to  preach  about 
the  effects,  so  much  as  about  the  causes.  The 
artificial  and  luxurious  life  of  our  modern  society 


148  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

is  the  heart  of  the  trouble;  the  overvaluation 
of  style  and  fashion;  the  undervaluation  of  the 
happiness  that  consists  with  plain  and  simple 
living-;  the  theory  that  the  only  life  that  is  life 
indeed  is  one  that  consists  of  an  abundance  of 
things.  Whatever  you  can  say  to  make  young 
men  and  women  see  the  beauty  and  nobility  of 
simpler  manners  and  quieter  pleasures,  the  su- 
periority of  a  genuine  friendship  to  the  advan- 
tages of  fashionable  society,  the  truth  that  the 
completion  of  life  for  the  man  or  the  woman 
lies  in  the  love  which  divides  our  sorrows  and 
doubles  our  joys,  will  help  in  the  most  effectual 
way  to  dry  up  the  poisoned  springs  from  which 
this  stream  of  pollution  issues. 

In  President  Roosevelt's  lecture  on  "The 
Strenuous  Life  "  are  the  kind  of  counsels  on 
this  subject  with  which  you  will  do  well  to  fill 
your  own  souls  and  the  souls  of  all  committed 
to  your  charge. 

"In  the  last  analysis  a  healthy  state  can  ex- 
ist only  when  the  men  and  women  who  make  it 
up  lead  clean,  vigorous,  healthy  lives;  when 
their  children  are  so  trained  that  they  shall  en- 
deavor  not  to  shirk  difficulties,  but  to  overcome 
them;  not  to  seek  ease,  but  to  know  how  to  sweat 
triumph  from  toil  and  risk.  The  man  must  be 
free  to  do  a  man's  work,  to  dare  and  endure  and 
to  labor  to  keep  himself  and  to  keep  those  de- 


SOCIAL   VICES  149 

pendent  on  him.  The  woman  must  be  the  house- 
wife, the  helpmeet  of  the  home-maker,  the  wise 
and  fearless  mother  of  many  healthy  children. 
In  one  of  Daudet's  powerful  and  melancholy 
books  he  speaks  of  '  the  fear  of  maternity,  the 
haunting  terror  of  the  young  wife  of  the  present 
day.'  When  such  words  can  be  written  of  a 
nation,  that  nation  is  rotten  to  the  heart's  core. 
When  men  fear  work  or  fear  righteous  war, 
when  women  fear  motherhood,  they  tremble  on 
the  brink  of  doom,  and  well  is  it  that  they  should 
perish  from  the  earth  where  they  are  fit  subjects 
for  the  scorn  of  all  men  and  women  who  are 
themselves  strong  and  brave  and  high-minded." 1 

The  prevalence  among  our  more  prosperous 
classes  of  such  sentiments  as  these  would  have 
many  blessed  consequences ;  among  them  would 
be  a  great  abatement  of  that  social  curse  whose 
devastations  we  are  now  considering. 

II.  Among  the  social  evils  which  have  greatly 
diminished  during  the  nineteenth  century  are 
the  evils  of  gaming.  Relatively  to  the  popula- 
tion and  the  wealth  of  the  country,  there  is  much 
less  gambling  now  than  when  General  Washing- 
ton was  President.  At  that  time  it  was  hardly 
discreditable  to  win  money  by  gambling  or  bet- 
ting. General  Washington  freely  records  in 
his  diary  sums  of  money  won  or  lost  by  him  in 

1  The  Strenuous  Life.  pp.  3,  4. 


ir,o  social  SALVATION 

betting  upon  horse-races.  The  same  i-  true  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  It  would  be  easy  to  produce 
such  evidence  from  the  cash-books  of  the  major- 
ity of  the  public  men  of  thai  time.  Wash- 
ington's notions  of  propriety,  as  every  one 
knows,  were  very  strict;  he  kept  himself  Erom 
everything  that  would  cause  scandal,  yet  he  saw 
nothing  questionable  in  hutting  on  a  horse-race. 
The  sentiment  in  England  with  regard  to  this 
particular  vice  is  much  less  rigid  at  the  present 
time  than  in  this  country ;  Lord  Jiosebery  in- 
dulges in  this  form  of  gambling,  as  do  many 
others  of  his  class;  nevertheless,  Lord  Rosehery 
suffers  some  loss  of  respect  on  account  of  this 
indulgence,  and  one  of  our  own  public  men,  in 
a  similar  position,  would  hardly  risk  the  injury 
to  his  reputation  which  would  be  inevitable  if  he 
were  suspected  of  any  such  practice.  In  Lord 
liosebery's  country,  a  little  more  than  one  hun- 
dred years  ago,  in  the  days  of  the  Georges,  men 
like  Chatham,  Fox,  Bolingbroke,  and  Wilber- 
force  were  in  the  habit  of  gambling  heavily, 
and  some  of  the  most  popular  clergymen  of  that 
period  were  known  to  be  addicted  to  the  same 
vice.  Even  in  England  the  public  sentiment  has 
greatly  changed  for  the  better,  and  in  our  own 
country  it  has  found  clear  expression  upon  the 
statute-books  of  most  of  our  states  in  the  pro- 
hibition, under  heavy  penalties,  of  all  forms  of 


SOCIAL   VICES  151 

gambling.  Even  the  great  lotteries,  which  lin- 
gered latest,  and  which  were  resorted  to  not 
very  long  ago  for  the  raising  of  funds  to  build 
colleges  and  educate  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
have  finally  been  swept  away. 

Over  against  these  gains  of  morality  certain 
losses  must,  however,  be  reckoned.  The  most 
prevalent  form  of  gambling  in  these  days  is 
one  unknown  to  our  great-grandfathers.  That 
is  the  gambling  of  our  stock  and  grain  and  pro- 
duce exchanges,  —  the  gambling  which  consti- 
tutes so  large  a  part  of  what  we  call  trade.  The 
difference  in  principle  between  buying  and  sell- 
ing on  margins  and  betting  on  a  horse-race  or 
a  ship's  progress  has  always  been  a  difficult  one 
for  me  to  make  out.  I  am  familiar  with  the 
arguments  which  show  how  this  betting  acts  as 
a  regulator  of  the  market/  and  how  a  legitimate 
trader  may  avail  himself  of  it  to  protect  himself 
against  fluctuations  which  may  occur  betwixt 
the  purchase  and  the  delivery  of  goods.  Doubt- 
less certain  benefits  may  result  from  it;  there 
are  few  great  evils  which  do  not  bring  in  their 
train  some  incidental  gains ;  nevertheless,  it  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  net  result  of  this  system 
of  commercial  gambling  is  an  ethical  injury  of 
no  small  dimensions.  If  I  could  be  convinced 
that  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the  present  system 
of  exchange,  I  should  be  sure  that  the  present 


L52  social  s.\l.\  \  I  [ON 

~\  -l .  in  of  exchange  is  radically  unsound  and 
most  give  place  t>»  something  Less  burtful  to 
character.  1  am  not,  however,  convinced  that 
it  is  essential  to  the  life  of  commerce  as  at  pre- 
sent organized;  I  believe  that  some  other  method 
could  It  found  of  securing  those  ends  of  regula- 
tion and  of  insurance  which  stock  and  produce 
gambling  are  now  supposed  to  serve. 

You  will  find  yourselves  confronted  in  your 
ministry  by  this  stupendous  system  of  stock  and 
produce  trading,  the  nature  and  tendencies  of 
which  you  will  need  to  study  thoroughly.  It  is 
a  somewhat  complicated  epiestion ;  I  advise  you 
not  to  be  in  too  great  haste  to  discuss  it;  make 
sure  of  your  ground. 

You  are  very  likely  to  be  brought  into  close 
contact  with  some  of  these  transactions,  and  you 
will  need  to  have  clear  ideas  respecting  the 
ethical  principles  involved. 

In  what  we  call  trade  there  are  at  least  three 
kinds  of  operations  which  need  to  be  distin- 
guished. 

The  first  is  legitimate  trade,  which  consists  in 
supplying  to  the  consumer  such  goods  as  he 
needs,  and  in  charging  him  a  reasonable  sum, 
in  the  way  of  profit,  for  the  service  rendered. 
The  merchant  who  brings  from  producers,  far 
and  near,  such  things  as  I  need,  keeps  them 
subject   to   my  demand,  and  delivers  them    to 


SOCIAL   VICES  153 

me  when  I  call,  is  performing  for  me  a  most 
valuable  service,  and  is  as  much  entitled  to  a 
reasonable  profit  on  the  transaction  as  the  gar- 
dener who  plants  my  ground  is  to  receive  wages 
for  his  work.  The  trader  who  took  advantage 
of  my  necessities  and  made  me  pay  an  exorbi- 
tant price  for  goods  that  were  indispensable  to 
me  would  be  an  extortioner  and  a  robber ;  but 
when  the  disposition  exists  to  deal  fairly  and  to 
charge  no  more  than  a  reasonable  profit,  the 
business  of  trade  is  not  only  legitimate  but  bene- 
ficent. There  is  no  reason  in  the  nature  of 
things  why  the  trader  engaged  in  a  purely  com- 
mercial business  should  not  adopt  the  Christian 
law  of  exchange,  which  is  simply,  "  Give  as  much 
as  you  can,"  —  as  much  as  you  can  consistently 
with  the  maintenance  of  the  business  and  the 
securing  for  yourself  of  a  reasonable  livelihood. 
The  second  of  the  operations  included  under 
the  name  of  trade  is  what  is  known  as  specu- 
lation. This  involves  buying  commodities  or 
properties  and  holding  them  for  a  rise;  buying 
when  the  market  is  depressed  and  waiting  for  it 
to  recover.  The  gain  of  the  speculator  is  made 
out  of  the  fluctuations  of  the  market.  The  more 
sudden  and  sharp  are  these  fluctuations,  the 
larger  are  his  chances.  To  all  legitimate  busi- 
ness these  fluctuations  are  highly  injurious. 
The  speculator,  qua  speculator,  makes  his  gains, 


154  B0(  LAL   SALVATION 

therefore,  out  of  the  misfortunes  of  his  fellows. 
Ill' .lues,  however,  render  some  service  both  to 
those  of  whom  he  buys  and  to  those  to  whom  be 
sells.     His  function   is  aol   purely  that  of  the 

spoiler.  Bui  he  gives  less  to  the  seller  than  the 
seller  in  normal  times  would  rightly  receive; 
and  he  gets  more  from  the  buyer  than  the  buyer 
in  normal  conditions  would  be  obliged  to  pay. 
It  is  difficult,  then,  to  see  how  the  speculator 
could  adopt  the  Christian  maxim,  "Give  as 
much  as  you  can."  The  principle  of  his  action 
requires  him  to  give  as  little  as  he  can  for  what 
he  gets  in  every  transaction.  That  is  probably 
the  principle  on  which  most  business  is  done, 
and  it  cannot  be  stigmatized  as  dishonest  or 
wrong,  when  judged  by  the  commonly  received 
basis  of  commercial  morality. 

It  must  also  be  said  that  the  speculative  ele- 
ment enters  more  or  less  into  nearly  all  legiti- 
mate trade.  Most  of  those  who  buy  goods  or 
property  of  any  kind  hope  that  the  price  will 
rise  before  they  are  compelled  to  sell. 

AVe  are  not,  therefore,  called  upon  to  con- 
demn speculation  as  essentially  immoral :  but  it 
is  plain  that  the  principles  on  which  it  rests  and 
the  motives  to  which  it  appeals  are  distinctly 
lower  than  those  which  are  involved  in  legiti- 
mate trade.  Trade  might  be  conducted  bene- 
volently,  with    the   purpose    of    service    as    the 


SOCIAL   VICES  155 

paramount  motive;  speculation  is  guided  by  a 
purely  egoistic  aim. 

The  third  operation  which  is  included  under 
the  name  of  trade  is  gambling.  That  is  an 
operation  in  which  no  goods  are  exchanged  and 
no  services  rendered;  it  consists  of  a  transfer 
of  value  from  one  person  to  another  with  no 
pretense  of  rendering  an  equivalent.  It  is  a 
method  of  getting  something  for  nothing  by 
an  appeal  to  luck  or  chance.  Legitimate  com- 
merce consists  in  a  fair  exchange  of  values.  If 
I  buy  goods  of  a  merchant,  there  is  an  exchange 
of  money  for  merchandise ;  the  merchandise  is 
worth  more  to  me  than  the  money,  and  the  money 
is  worth  more  to  the  merchant  than  the  merchan- 
dise ;  both  parties  to  the  transaction  are  gain- 
ers. If  I  employ  a  physician  to  attend  me  in 
illness,  or  a  music-teacher  to  give  my  children 
lessons,  or  a  laborer  to  clean  my  carpet,  there  is 
also  an  exchange  of  values;  I  give  my  money 
for  the  services  of  the  physician  or  the  music- 
teacher  or  the  laborer,  because  they  are  worth  to 
me  more  than  the  money.  But  when  one  man  bets 
another  that  a  certain  card  has  such  a  face,  or 
that  a  certain  horse  will  trot  a  mile  sooner  than 
another,  or  that  wheat  will  bring  so  much  in 
thirty  days,  and  wins  his  money,  what  exchange 
takes  place?  The  winner  has  got  his  money 
and  given  nothing  for  it;  the  loser  has  parted 


15G  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

with    his   money   ami    got    nothing  at    all    for    it. 

The  study  and  the  purpose  of  the  gambler,  ///' 
gambler's  business^  is  to  get  money  or  othei 
property  belonging  to  others  and  to  give  in  ex- 
change for  it  absolutely  nothing.  Whatever 
anyone  wins  in  gambling  some  one  else  Loses; 
by  as  much  as  he  is  enriched  some  one  else  is 
impoverished;  for  all  that  he  has  got  he  has 
given  no  equivalent;  other  people  have  parted 
with  what  he  has  gained  and  he  has  given  them 
for  it  no  merchandise,  no  service,  no  pleasure, 
no  accommodation,  nothing  whatever. 

Kant's  rule  applied  to  this  transaction  reveals 
its  nature:  "Act  upon  principles  of  universal 
application."  If  all  men  acted  on  the  gambler's 
principle,  what  would  become  of  society?  The 
principle  is  distinctly  and  exactly  anti-social; 
the  gambler's  relation  to  economic  society  is 
essentially  the  same  as  that  of  the  thief.  There 
could  be  no  economic  society  if  all  men  followed 
his  rule. 

This  is  the  ethical  principle  which  underlies 
the  laws  making  gambling  a  crime.  It  is  a  per- 
fectly sound  principle.  I  do  not  think  that  it 
is  generally  understood.  I  have  asked  many 
persons  to  tell  me  what  is  the  essential  evil  of 
gambling,  and  have  very  seldom  received  the 
true  answer.  The  evil  is  generally  supposed  to 
consist  in  the  injurious  effects  upon  the  gam- 


SOCIAL   VICES  157 

bier's  character,  —  in  making  him  restless  and 
feverish  and  indisposed  to  honest  industry. 
But  that  is  an  inadequate  diagnosis.  The  truth 
is  that  the  gambler  is  essentially  a  thief;  he 
gets  his  neighbor's  property  away  from  him 
without  giving  him  any  equivalent  for  it.  You 
will  need,  then,  to  get  a  firm  grip  upon  these 
principles,  and  to  enforce  them  in  your  teach- 
ing, no  matter  whom  they  hit.  Few  questions 
of  ethics  are  more  important  just  now,  or  call 
more  loudly  for  clear  and  trenchant  treatment. 
The  invasion  of  trade  by  the  gambler's  prac- 
tices needs  to  be  met  with  a  distinct  prophetic 
testimony  against  the  essential  nefariousness  of 
the  business  in  all  its  shapes  and  disguises. 

I  am  told  by  those  who  ought  to  know  that 
polite  society  is  suffering  the  same  invasion. 
Various  games  of  hazard,  in  which  money  in  con- 
siderable amounts  is  lost  and  won,  are  said  to 
be  in  vogue  in  circles  which  not  long  ago  were 
considered  respectable.  A  young  girl  from 
my  own  city  recently  visited  New  York,  and 
found  herself  in  an  elegant  home,  where  a  card- 
party  with  this  spice  for  its  diversion  was  to 
assemble  in  the  evening.  The  girl  had  scru- 
ples against  gambling  and  begged  to  be  excused, 
but  her  hostess  insisted  that  she  must  play, 
making  her  feel  that  she  would  violate  the  obli- 
gations of  hospitality  if  she  refused.      With  a 


158  S0(  LAL  SALVATION 

greal  reluctance  she  yielded,  and  lust  during  the 
evening  considerable  money.  The  hostess  of- 
fered, the  next  morning,  to  make  good  ber  1"--. 
Imt  the  girl  had  spirit  enough  to  refuse  that 
reparation;  since  the  greater  wrong  sin-  had 
suffered  could  not  he  undone,  she  would  not 
permit  the  lesser  to  he  repaired.  The  essential 
vulgarity  and  brutality  of  a  society  in  which  a 
thing  like  that  can  happen  does  not  need  to  be 
pointed  out. 

The  state  of  mind  which  can  find  amuse- 
ment in  winning  another  person's  money  is  one 
into  which  I  find  it  impossible  to  enter.  I 
have  watched  travelers,  in  the  sleeping-cars 
and  on  the  steamships,  playing  by  the  hour,  for 
larger  or  smaller  stakes,  and  apparently  find- 
ing in  the  game,  because  of  its  winnings,  a  zest 
which  without  them  would  have  been  wanting. 
It  was  pleasure  to  get  another  man's  money 
away  from  him  and  give  him  nothing  in  exchange 
for  it!  That  spectacle  always  fills  me  with 
amazement.  There  is  something  so  essentially 
sordid  about  it,  that  it  seems  to  me  beneath 
contempt.  I  marvel  that  any  gentleman  or  lady 
can  find  diversion  in  playing  for  money. 
What!  have  we  sunk,  in  our  miserable  money- 
grubbing,  to  such  a  depth  as  this,  that  we  are 
forced  to  turn  even  our  pastimes  into  schemes 
for  jrain? 


SOCIAL  VICES  159 

If  you  are  to  be  true  teachers  and  prophets 
of  righteousness,  you  will  have  to  bear  some 
clear  and  pointed  testimony  against  this  insidi- 
ous and  deadly  iniquity.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
in  the  sudden  ascent  to  affluence  of  a  multi- 
tude with  minds  untrained  and  characters  un- 
spiritualized,  these  low-lived  pleasures  are  easily 
propagated.  The  new-rich  are  apt  to  cultivate 
questionable  amusements.  Against  all  these 
tendencies  the  voice  of  the  Christian  minister 
must  be  lifted  up.  You  cannot  let  such  vices 
alone.  They  will  infest  your  own  congregation ; 
they  will  assail  and  corrupt  the  characters  of 
your  young  men  and  women.  You  must  do 
what  you  can  to  create  a  public  sentiment  which 
shall  make  them  disreputable. 

In  many  of  the  larger  cities  gambling  is  a 
business,  carried  on  with  more  or  less  publicity, 
in  places  known  to  most  intelligent  citizens. 
Against  the  keeping  of  such  places  there  is  law 
enough,  everywhere;  and  the  law  is  based,  as 
we  have  seen,  on  sound  ethics.  But  the  admin- 
istration of  the  law  in  many  places  is  extremely 
lax;  the  police  authorities  corruptly,  either  for 
money  or  political  support,  ignore  the  violation 
of  law  and  permit  this  infernal  traffic  to  go  on. 
Gambling  places  in  many  of  our  cities  are  as 
public  as  the  drug-stores;  even  the  games  and 
winnings  are  sometimes  reported  in  the  news- 


1G0  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

papers.  Such  a  defiance  <>f  law  ought  ni>)  to 
be  tolerated,  and  the  Christian  pulpit  is  respon- 
sible for  arousing  the  moral  sense  of  the  com- 
munity to  demand  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 
There  is  no  such  difficulty  here  as  in  the  case 
of  the  liquor  laws.  The  vast  majority  of  re- 
putable citizens  are  opposed  to  gambling  in  all 
its  forms;  all  intelligent  business  men  are  well 
aware  of  the  perils  to  which  it  exposes  them,  in 
undermining  the  characters  of  trusted  employ- 
ees; the  only  reason  for  the  failure  to  enforce 
the  laws  against  gambling  places  is  found  in 
the  corruption  or  the  inefficiency  of  the  police 
authorities.  An  awakened  public  sentiment 
would  compel  these  derelict  offieials  to  do  their 
duty,  or  would  replace  them  with  others  of  a 
different  character.  But  the  public  opinion 
which  demands  this  reform  must  at  the  same 
time  and  with  equal  positiveness  denounce  and 
put  to  shame  the  sugar-coated  gambling  that 
is  going  on  in  the  drawing-rooms  of  the  "four 
hundred." 

Deeper  than  all  this  your  ploughshare  must 
go, — down  to  the  subsoil  of  this  vice,  the  dis- 
position and  determination,  in  all  our  commerce 
with  the  world,  to  get  something  for  nothing. 
That  is  the  soil  in  which  the  gambling  habit 
grows.  A  great  many  of  the  rest  of  us  are  one 
with  the  gambler  in  his  central  purpose.      We 


SOCIAL  VICES  161 

are  glad,  whenever  we  can,  to  get  something  for 
nothing;  to  win  gain  or  credit  or  power  for 
which  we  have  not  given  and  do  not  mean  to 
give  any  fair  equivalent.  We  are  all  too  eager 
to  get  rich  by  short  cuts;  to  receive  marks  which 
do  not  represent  achievements;  to  win  success 
by  some  lucky  throw ;  we  are  not  so  willing  as 
we  ought  to  be  to  pay  full  price  of  labor  and 
patience  and  prudence  and  frugality  and  fidelity 
for  the  successes  that  we  crave.  The  roots  of 
all  injustice,  of  all  dishonesty,  of  all  heartless- 
ness  and  cruelty,  are  in  this  disposition,  and  find 
in  it  their  proper  nourishment.  The  only  radi- 
cal cure  for  the  social  distemper  of  gambling  is 
in  the  change  of  mind  which  brings  the  grace  of 
contentment,  the  equable  temper  which  can  thrive 
in  narrow  fortunes,  and  not  less  the  equitable 
and  honorable  spirit  which  scorns  to  take  away 
any  man's  possessions  without  rendering  him  a 
fair  equivalent. 

III.  Respecting  the  third  and  last  of  the  social 
evils  which  we  have  undertaken  to  group  in  this 
discussion,  there  is  so  much  to  say  that  I  am 
tempted  to  say  nothing.  The  treatment  which 
I  shall  give  it  must  needs  be  fragmentary  and 
inadequate.  The  subject,  however,  is  one  which 
has  been  so  thoroughly  discussed  for  so  many 
years,  that  you  are  pretty  familiar  with  all 
phases  of  it,  and  there  is  need  of  scarcely  any- 


1G2  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

thing  more  than  a  few  practical  suggestions  as 
to  the  best  methods  of  dealing  with  it. 

1.  At  the  outset,  let  me  admonish  yon  that  this 
is  a  subject  in  the  discussion  <>f  which  yon  will 

iirr.1  to  cultivate  serenity  of  mind  and  an  unre- 
sentful  temper.  In  religious  controversy  most 
of  us  have  learned  to  be  fairly  tolerant ;  we  can 
understand  that  a  man  may  differ  with  us  on  a 
theological  point  without  being  an  enemy  of  the 
truth.  This  spirit  does  not  always  prevail 
among  the  earnest  friends  of  temperance.  There 
are  many  who  are  apt  to  regard  all  who  do  not 
agree  with  them  as  to  methods  as  the  paid  agents 
of  the  saloon  interest.  This  uncharitableness 
is  to  be  deplored ;  it  has  weakened  the  cause  of 
temperance.  The  question  is  really  a  difficult 
and  complicated  one;  there  is  large  room  for 
honest  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  best 
methods  of  dealing  with  it;  and  it  is  desirable 
that  many  different  methods  should  be  fully  and 
fairly  tried,  that  we  may  have  better  reasons 
than  our  own  subjective  impressions  for  believ- 
ing one  method  to  be  superior  to  another.  It  is 
therefore  important  that  in  all  our  investigations 
and  discussions  we  all  try  to  keep  our  tempers, 
and  avoid  uncharitable  judgments.  It  is  hard 
to  be  tolerant  of  intolerance;  but  this  is  one  of 
the  first  lessons  you  will  have  to  learn  if  you  are 
going  to  discuss  with  profit  the  temperance  ques- 
tion. 


SOCIAL  VICES  1G3 

2.  Recall  what  was  said  at  the  beginning  of 
this  lecture;  keep  the  interests  of  character 
supreme  and  give  due  honor  to  the  moral  forces. 
Make  the  drunkard  feel  that  he  is  responsible 
for  his  drunkenness,  and  that  if  his  will  is  too 
weak  to  resist  temptation,  there  is  omnipotent 
grace  on  which  he  may  rely. 

3.  In  dealing  with  the  question  of  the  per- 
sonal conduct  of  those  who  are  not  drunkards, 
make  it  clear  that  while  abstinence,  for  love's 
sake,  is  the  highest  rule  of  conduct,  it  is  of  no 
value,  as  an  example,  unless  it  is  self-imposed. 
To  have  any  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the  drunk- 
ard, it  must  be  purely  voluntary,  —  it  must  not 
be  due  to  the  pressure  upon  the  abstainer  of 
public  opinion.  If  the  drunkard  thinks  that  I 
am  depriving  myself  of  what  I  might  safely  and 
innocently  use,  because  I  want  to  encourage  him 
to  abstain  from  what  he  cannot  use  without 
peril,  my  example  may  have  some  weight  with 
him.  If  he  knows  that  I  am  abstaining  because 
I  am  afraid  of  losing  credit  with  the  temperance 
people,  it  will  have  no  weight  with  him  at  all. 
The  man  who  says  with  Paul,  "I  will  eat  no 
meat  while  the  world  standeth,  if  it  make  my 
brother  to  offend,"  takes  a  noble  stand.  The 
man  who  says,  "I  am  fond  of  meat  and  would 
eat  it  if  I  dared,  but  I  am  afraid  that  if  I  did 
the  Anti-Meat  Association  would  make  it  disa- 


1G4  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

greeable  for  me,"  is  not  likely  to  exert  a  very 
wide  influence  anion--  the  meat-eaters. 

4.  In  dealing  with  the  question  of  legal  regu- 
lation of  the  liquor  traffic,  it  is  best  to  be  undog- 
matic.  Many  methods  have  been  tried;  none, 
as  yet,  lias  demonstrated  its  superiority.  Li- 
cense does  not  appear  to  afford  the  restrict  inn 
needed;  state  prohibition  has  been  measurably 
successful  in  the  rural  districts,  but  a  complete 
failure  in  the  larger  cities;  the  Swedish  and 
liussian  system  of  governmental  monopoly  of 
the  traffic,  which  has  been  tried  in  South  Caro- 
lina, can  hardly  be  said  to  have  justified  the 
expectations  of  its  friends  nor  the  predictions  of 
its  enemies;  its  efficacy  is  still  in  doubt. 

Perhaps  we  may  say  that  the  best  results, 
thus  far,  have  been  gained  under  some  form  of 
local  option.  My  own  belief  is  that  this  is  the 
method  which  is  now  most  promising;  and  that 
it  ought  to  be  extended  not  only  to  townships 
and  municipalities,  but  to  wards  or  other  subdi- 
visions of  cities,  so  that  each  neighborhood  may 
determine  for  itself  whether  this  traffic  shall 
lie  permitted  within  its  boundaries.  All  sorts 
of  theoretical  objections  may  be  made  to  this 
method;  undoubtedly  it  would  appear  to  some 
persons  a  great  anomaly  that  what  was  lawful  on 
one  side  of  a  street  should  be  criminal  on  the 
other  side.     But  we  shall  show  our  wisdom  in 


SOCIAL  VICES  165 

dealing  with  the  temperance  question  if  we 
adopt  the  good  old  Anglo-Saxon  principle  of 
fixing  our  eyes  on  practical  results  and  letting 
the  anomalies  take  care  of  themselves.  There 
is  a  street  in  a  small  city  through  which  I  often 
pass,  the  dwellers  on  one  side  of  which  recognize 
and  obey  a  wholly  different  set  of  laws  from 
those  recognized  and  obeyed  by  the  dwellers  on 
the  other  side ;  for  the  line  between  Ohio  and 
Indiana  runs  through  the  middle  of  the  street. 
But  the  people  seem  to  get  along  very  well 
together,  and  there  is  neither  confusion  nor 
anarchy.  Disregarding  considerations  which 
are  purely  ideal,  we  may  confidently  say  that 
such  an  extension  of  local  option  would  result 
in  banishing  the  open  saloon  from  large  sec- 
tions of  every  great  city.  If  the  people  of  any 
ward  or  legislative  district  regard  the  open 
saloon  as  an  injury  to  their  property  and  a  nui- 
sance in  their  neighborhood,  they  ought  to  have 
the  power  to  rid  themselves  of  it.  If  those  of 
other  neighborhoods  are  differently  affected  to- 
ward it,  their  preference  ought  to  be  followed. 
Time  will  perhaps  demonstrate  whether  its  pre- 
sence or  its  absence  brings  the  greater  advantage. 
If  the  traffic  in  which  the  saloon  is  engaged  were 
universally  regarded  as  essentially  immoral,  such 
an  arrangement  could  not  be  defended;  but  the 
fact  is  that  large  numbers  of  our  people  consider 


1GG  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

the  traffic  to  be  entirely  legitimate  and  benefi- 
cent, and  it  is  impossible  for  the  people  of  one 
section  to  put  honest  and  reputable  people  of 
another  section  into  the  category  of  criminals 
upon  a  question  of  this  nature. 

5.  To  one  conclusion  I  have  clearly  come, 
namely,  that  wherever  it  is  decreed  that  the 
saloon  must  go,  there  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of 
those  who  abolish  it  to  see  that  something  better 
takes  its  place.  Most  of  those  who  have  been 
talking  about  the  saloon  all  their  lives  and  say- 
ing many  hard  things  about  it  have  very  little 
knowledge  of  its  real  character  and  function. 
But  this  is  a  scientific  age,  and  quite  a  number 
of  people  have  formed  the  curious  habit  of  try- 
ing to  find  out  what  things  are  before  they  pro- 
nounce them  good  or  bad.  Several  of  these 
people  have  been  investigating  the  saloons,  — 
spending  weeks  and  months  in  them,  and  care- 
fully recording  the  facts  which  they  have  thus 
observed.  It  must  be  allowed  that  these  reports 
have  modified  to  some  extent  the  opinion  of  in- 
telligent men  respecting  the  nature  of  the  sa- 
loon. Speaking  for  myself,  I  can  say  that  they 
have  not  convinced  me  that  the  typical  saloon 
is,  on  the  whole,  a  useful  institution.  lam  still 
of  the  opinion  that  its  influence  is,  on  the  whole, 
highly  injurious;  that  it  is  responsible  for  an 
enormous  waste  of  money  which  is  needed  for 


SOCIAL   VICES  167 

the  comfort  and  the  pleasure  of  the  families  of 
the  men  who  spend  it;  that  it  helps  to  cultivate 
in  great  multitudes  habits  which  are  destructive 
to  health  and  character.  I  should  like  to  see 
the  number  of  drinking  saloons  greatly  lessened, 
and  I  wish  that  the  moral  sense  of  the  people 
would  demand  that  they  should  be  abolished  al- 
together. But  I  must  admit  that  the  recent  in- 
vestigations have  made  it  plain  that  the  saloon, 
along  with  its  injurious  effects,  does  serve  some 
useful  purposes.  It  is  probable  that  with  the 
majority  of  those  who  frequent  the  saloons,  the 
craving  for  drink  is  a  subordinate  motive.  The 
saloon  supplies  "the  demand  for  social  expres- 
sion;" that  is  a  large  part  of  its  function.  "The 
social  stimulus  of  men,"  says  Mr.  Moore  of  the 
Hull  House,  who  spent  several  months  in  the 
saloons  of  the  nineteenth  ward  of  Chicago,  "is 
epitomized  in  the  saloon.  It  is  a  centre  of  learn- 
ing, books,  papers,  and  lecture  hall  to  them.  It 
is  the  clearing  house  for  common  intelligence, 
the  place  where  their  philosophy  of  life  is 
worked  out,  and  their  political  and  social  beliefs 
take  their  beginnings."1  Professor  Walter  A. 
Wyckoff,  whose  opportunities  of  observation 
have  been  abundant,  says :  "  My  short  associa- 
tion with  workingmen  in  this  country  gave  to 
me  a  very  strong  impression  of  the  perfect  adap- 

1  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  p.  226. 


1G8  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

tation  to  their  social  needs  which  the  saloon  a> 
an  institution  supplies.  There  is  qo  social  fad 
apart  from  the  family  which  seems  to  me,  by 
reason  of  its  strength  and  efficiency,  to  bear 
comparison  with  the  saloon  in  its  influence  upon 
the  lives  of  workingmen  in  America.""  ' 

In  a  most  instructive  volume,  entitled  "Sub- 
stitutes for  the  Saloon,"*  Mr.  Raymond  II.  Calk- 
ins thus  moralizes:  — 

"An  unbiased  study  of  the  saloon,  as  it  exists 
in  our  American  cities  under  many  differing 
laws  and  in  its  many  different  forms,  compels 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  acting  to-day  as  a  social 
centre,  even  where  this  purpose  is  farthest  from 
the  mind  of  its  keeper,  and  where  its  apparent 
attractiveness  is  reduced  to  its  lowest  tern,-. 
Upon  closer  examination  the  importance  of  this 
result  only  increases,  and  the  real  hold  of  the 
saloon  upon  the  social  life  of  the  people  becomes 
more  and  more  clear.  It  is  apparent  for  one 
thing  that  there  are  not  many  centres  of  recrea- 
tion and  amusement  open  at  all  hours  to  the 
working  people,  none  that  minister  to  their 
comfort  in  such  a  variety  of  ways.  The  longer 
one  searches  for  just  the  right  kind  of  a  substi- 
tute for  the  saloon,  affording  its  conveniences 
without  its  evils,  the  more  one  despairs  of  find- 
ing it.    And  yet  such  places  are  a  positive  neces- 

1  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  p  237. 


SOCIAL   VICES  169 

sity,  for  the  social  instinct  which  demands  and 
finds  its  satisfaction  within  the  saloon  is  a  real- 
ity." 1  It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  these  wit- 
nesses. And  their  testimony  shows  that  the  ex- 
tirpation of  the  saloons  is  not  a  simple  problem. 
They  ought  not  to  be  abolished  without  making 
some  provision  for  that  need  to  which  they  so 
efficiently  minister.  The  subject  is  too  large 
to  be  entered  upon  here;  but  it  is  now  tolerably 
clear  that  the  first  step  in  the  temperance  re- 
form —  the  obligation  which  precedes  and  out- 
ranks all  others  —  is  the  invention  and  supply 
of  some  sort  of  social  substitute  for  the  saloon. 
This  is  not  an  easy  problem.  It  must  not  be  a 
charity;  that  would  kill  it.  The  workingmen 
who  patronize  the  saloons  want  no  gratuities. 
It  must  rest  on  an  economic  basis.  It  must  be 
a  self-supporting  institution.  In  England  a 
great  number  of  Coffee  Houses  and  Refresh- 
ment Rooms  have  been  established  all  over  the 
kingdom ;  they  have  been  economically  profitable, 
and  they  have  proved  a  strong  counter-attrac- 
tion to  the  public  house.  In  America  such  ex- 
periments have  been  few  and  feeble.  The  time 
has  come  when  the  practical  American  must 
grapple  with  this  difficult  problem.  And  it 
might  be  wise  for  our  ardent  reformers  to  stop 
denouncing    the  saloon-keeper  long  enough    to 

1    Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,  pp.  4,  5. 


170  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

get  acquainted  with  him.  One  of  the  princi- 
pal things  thai  he  is  doing  is  the  thing  thai  they 

have  got  to  learn  to  do.  The  only  way  in  which 
they  can  gel  rid  of  him  is  to  meet  him  on  his 
own  ground  and  beat  him  at  his  own  game. 
He  has  found  out  how  to  furnish  a  social  resort 
to  which  men  like  to  come,  in  which  they  feel  at 
home,  where  their  social  needs  are  ingeniously 
supplied.  Before  the  saloon-keeper  is  driven 
out  of  the  business,  somebody  must  show  that 
he  can  do  this  thing  as  well  as  the  saloon-keeper 
does  it. 

"The  saloon,  as  it  appears  to  me,"  says  Mr. 
Wyckoff ,  "  in  relation  to  the  working  class 
in  America,  is  an  organ  of  high  development, 
adapting  itself  with  singular  perfectness  to  its 
function  in  catering  in  a  hundred  ways  to  the 
social  and  political  needs  of  men ;  and  if  it  is  to 
be  combated  successfully  by  an  institution,  this 
institution  must  be  rooted  in  natural  causes  and 
must  minister  with  equal  efficiency  to  real  social 
needs. 

"In  view  of  results  for  which  the  saloon  is 
largely  responsible,  in  the  wreck  of  individual 
lives,  in  the  known  relation  which  its  traffic 
bears  to  the  totality  of  crime  and  pauperism  and 
insanity,  and  the  unmeasured  misery  caused  by 
the  consuming  appetite  which  it  breeds,  it  is 
vital  that  an  opposing  institution  rooted  in  the 


SOCIAL  VICES  171 

necessity  of  reform  and  in  conscious  responsi- 
bility for  one's  fellow  men,  and  having,  too,  a 
valid  economic  basis  in  yielding  profit,  should 
be  fostered  by  infinite  patience  and  care,  and 
grow  in  all  helpfulness  and  practical  adaptation 
to  constructive  social  good."  1 

That  is  the  temperance  problem  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  I  trust  that  you,  my  brethren, 
and  the  people  whom  you  will  inspire  and  lead, 
will  have  some  good  part  in  working  it  out. 

1  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  pp.  239,  240. 


VI 

PUBLIC   EDUCATION 

If  you  had  been  called  to  exercise  your  min- 
istry in  New  England  two  hundred  years  ago, 
you  would  have  met  no  question  respecting  the 
relation  of  the  church  or  the  ministry  to  public 
education.  At  that  time  it  was  supposed  that 
education  was  fundamentally  a  religious  func- 
tion; that  the  school  and  the  church  were  en- 
gaged in  the  same  enterprise.  Perhaps  the 
first  public  action  taken  in  the  country  provid- 
ing, by  direct  taxation,  for  the  establishment  of 
a  school,  was  that  of  Dorchester,  in  Massachu- 
setts, in  1639,  and  this  action  was  taken  "in 
consideration  of  a  relligeous  care  of  posteritie," 
and  because  the  voters  knew  "how  necessary 
the  education  of  theire  children  will  be  to  fitt 
them  for  public  service  both  in  churche  and  com- 
monwealth in  succeding  ages."  The  religious 
motive  was  always  avowed  in  connection  with 
the  establishment  of  public  schools,  and  provi- 
sion was  made  for  definite  religious  instruction 
in  the  Bible  and  in  the  catechism.      Some  of  us 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  173 

have  memories  that  go  back  to  the  time  when 
every  public  school  was  still,  in  some  sense,  a 
seminary  of  the  Christian  religion;  when  the 
New  Testament  was  regularly  read,  every  morn- 
ing, verse  about,  by  all  the  pupils  who  could 
read,  and  prayer  was  offered  by  the  teacher. 
From  most  of  our  public  schools,  if  not  from 
all  of  them,  these  devout  forms  have  now  wholly 
disappeared,  and  there  is  no  semblance  of  reli- 
gious observance.  I  do  not  care  to  go  into  the 
causes  of  this;  perhaps,  under  existing  circum- 
stances, it  was  inevitable.  The  perpetuation  of 
mere  forms  of  worship,  which  do  not  represent 
any  worshipful  feeling,  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
striven  for.  The  Bible  in  the  schools  in  the 
hands  of  men  and  women  who  love  the  Bible 
and  desire  to  convey  the  spirit  of  its  teachings 
to  the  hearts  of  its  pupils  would  be  a  blessing 
indeed ;  but  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
do  not  believe  in  it  nor  obey  it  would  work  more 
injury  than  benefit  to  religion. 

Upon  one  thing  we  may,  I  drink,  reasonably 
insist,  not  wholly  in  the  interest  of  religion,  but 
quite  as  much  in  the  interest  of  general  intelli- 
gence. Whatever  the  moral  and  spiritual  value 
of  the  Bible  may  be,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  it  occupies  a  place  in  our  literature  which 
makes  a  fair  knowledge  of  it  essential  to  every 
educated  man,  no  matter  what  his  faith  may  be. 


174  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

The  Bible  is  woven  through  all  our  literature; 
names,  words,  phrases  borrowed  from  it,  allu- 
sions to  it  are  found  on  almost  every  page; 
without  a  good  knowledge  of  it  much  of  what 
he  reads  will  be  unintelligible  to  the  reader; 
familiarity  with  the  Bible  lights  up  with  beau- 
tiful significance  many  a  passage  which  would 
otherwise  be  enigmatical.  Of  course  the  wider 
is  one's  knowledge  of  books  in  general,  the 
greater  is  his  pleasure  and  profit  in  reading,  for 
other  books  are  quoted  and  alluded  to,  but  there 
is  no  book  in  our  language  which  has  been  used 
in  this  way  one  hundredth  part  as  much  as  has 
the  Bible;  and  for  the  purposes  of  general  in- 
telligence it  is  therefore  one  hundred  times  as 
necessary  that  one  should  know  the  Bible  as 
that  he  should  know  any  other  book.  This  is 
the  fact  upon  which  educators  ought  to  insist. 
I  think  that  they  are  beginning  to  make  their 
voices  heard.  The  most  indignant  protests  which 
I  have  heard  concerning  the  amazing  popular 
ignorance  of  the  Bible  have  come  from  profes- 
sors in  colleges,  whose  reports  concerning  the 
lack  of  Biblical  knowledge  in  the  pupils  that 
come  to  them,  even  from  Christian  homes  and 
Sunday-schools,  are  almost  incredible.  We 
have  now  upon  the  stage  a  generation  which  lias 
grown  up  without  any  instruction  in  the  Bible 
in  the  public  schools,  and  the  depth  and  breadth 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  175 

of  popular   ignorance    respecting  the   Bible   is 
something  astonishing. 

If  we  compare  ourselves  with  other  peoples  in 
this  respect,  we  shall  find  small  reason  for  self- 
complacency.  Pupils  educated  in  German  and 
Scandinavian  schools  are  apt  to  know  something 
of  the  Bible,  and  in  England  it  would  appear 
that  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people 
desire  to  have  the  Bible  taught  in  the  public 
schools.  It  seems  to  be  assumed  that  this  is  a 
book  concerning  which  children  need  to  know 
something,  since  it  is  the  one  book  which  has  had 
more  to  do  than  all  other  books  put  together 
with  the  intellectual  and  civil  life  of  the  whole 
Western  world. 

Matthew  Arnold  was  considered  by  many  to 
be  a  great  heretic;  certainly  he  was  far  from 
being  a  bigoted  votary  of  the  Christian  religion. 
For  a  long  time  he  was  a  school  inspector,  and 
had  large  opportunities  of  studying  the  pupils  of 
the  public  schools  and  their  needs,  and  he  was 
an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  the  study  of  the  Bible 
in  the  public  schools.  It  was  from  the  point  of 
view  of  a  lover  of  literature  and  culture  that  he 
reached  this  conclusion ;  he  always  insisted  that 
familiarity  with  the  best  literature  was  the  best 
education;  that  there  was  no  better  way  of 
broadening  the  mind  and  cultivating  the  higher 
judgment  than  by  getting  acquainted  with  the 


176  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

best  thai  has  been  thought  and  said  by  the  great 
men  of  the  world.  And  therefore  he  wanted 
the  Bible  Btudied  in  the  public  schools.  "Only 
one  literature  there  is,"'  he  said, — "one  great 
literature,  for  which  the  people  have  had  a  pre- 
paration,—  the  literature  of  the  Bible.  How- 
ever far  they  may  be  from  having  a  complete 
preparation  for  it,  they  have  some;  and  it  is 
the  only  great  literature  for  which  they  have 
any.  If  poetry,  philosophy,  and  eloquence  — 
if  what  we  call  in  one  word  letters  —  are  a 
power  and  a  beneficent,  wonder-working  power 
in  education,  through  the  Bible  only  have  the 
people  much  chance  of  getting  at  poetry,  phi- 
losophy, and  eloquence.  Chords  of  power  are 
touched  in  this  way  which  no  other  part  of  the 
instruction  in  a  public  school  reaches,  and 
chords  various,  not  the  simple  religious  chord 
only."  And  in  his  report  to  the  Education  De- 
partment he  submits  these  suggestions  to  school 
boards :  "  Let  them  make  the  main  outlines  of 
Bible  history,  and  the  getting  by  heart  a  selec- 
tion of  the  finest  psalms,  the  most  interesting 
passages  from  the  historical  and  prophetical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  chief  para- 
bles, discourses,  and  exhortations  of  the  New,  a 
part  of  the  regular  school  work."  This  counsel 
has  been  practically  followed  by  most  of  the 
school  boards  in  England.     In  1895  there  were 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  177 

in  England  and  Wales  2392  school  boards,  of 
which  there  were  but  91,  and  these  in  very 
small  places,  which  provided  no  religious  teach- 
ing; in  the  schools  of  the  other  2300  with  their 
two  millions  of  pupils,  the  Bible  is  read  daily, 
and  some  such  careful  provision  as  has  been 
described  is  made  for  the  instruction  of  the  chil- 
dren in  this  great  literature. 

It  appears  to  me  that  something  of  this  nature 
may  yet  be  hoped  for  in  connection  with  our 
public  education,  and  that  the  subject  is  one 
which  the  Christian  ministry  ought  to  keep  in 
sight.  Whatever  is  done  must  be  done  with 
great  prudence,  and  it  must  be  evident  that  the 
interests  in  view  are  not  those  of  dogmatism, 
but  rather  of  general  intelligence.  We  study 
Homer,  the  Bible  of  the  old  pagan  Greeks,  in 
our  schools,  with  no  objection ;  doubtless  if  any 
one  wanted  to  study  the  Zenda vesta,  the  religious 
book  of  the  old  Persians,  or  the  Niebelungen- 
lied,  the  religious  book  of  the  Scandinavians, 
that  would  be  thought  innocent,  if  not  laudable; 
but  the  proposition  to  study  our  own  Bible, 
which,  from  every  point  of  view,  as  literature, 
as  history,  as  philosophy,  as  moral  teaching, 
is  infinitely  more  important  than  any  or  all  of 
these,  seems  to  fill  the  minds  of  some  people 
with  vague  alarms.  There  seems  to  be  no  rea- 
son in  this,  and  I  hope  that  by  and  by  we  shall 


178  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

get  ashamed  of  it,  and  bring  the  Bible  back  into 

our  schools.  To  make  it  the  basis  of  doctrinal 
teaching  would  bo,  of  course,  impossible;  but 
we  might  have  the  occasional  reverent  reading 
of  it,  and  we  might,  at  least,  teach  the  pupils  to 
discern  the  beauty  of  its  poetry  and  the  glory 
of  its  eloquence  and  the  uplifting  power  of  its 
prophetic  ideals. 

The  family  is  the  social  unit,  and  all  the 
forces  which  are  employed  in  social  construction 
have  their  norms  in  the  life  of  the  family.  One 
great  part  of  the  business  of  the  home  is  to  fit 
its  inmates  to  bear  their  part  in  society,  —  in 
the  life  of  the  commonwealth.  Civilized  men 
live  in  communities,  and  the  art  of  living  in- 
cludes the  art  of  living  together.  The  primary 
school  in  which  this  art  is  learned  and  practiced 
is  the  family.  No  higher  function  belongs  to 
the  family  than  that  of  equipping  those  who  are 
under  its  discipline  with  such  an  outfit  of  prin- 
ciples, sentiments,  and  habits  of  thought  and 
action  as  shall  enable  them  to  fulfill  their  duties 
to  the  community.  This  involves  the  ability  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  so  that  they  shall  not 
be  a  burden  on  the  community.  Industrial 
training,  intellectual  training,  moral  training, 
—  all  these  the  children  ought  to  receive  in  the 
household.  The  parents  have  brought  these 
children  into  the  world,  and  they  are  bound  to 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  179 

see  that  the  children  are  fitted  to  live  in  the 
world  productively,  worthily,  and  happily.  Re- 
sponsibility for  the  education  of  the  children 
rests  primarily  upon  the  parents,  and  can  never 
be  shifted  without  social  injury. 

We  find,  however,  that  the  actual  work  of 
education  is  now  largely  done  outside  the  fam- 
ily. The  function  of  education  has  been  spe- 
cialized; the  school  has  assumed  a  large  share 
of  the  work  for  which  the  parents  are  primarily 
responsible.  This  has  come  about  for  two  rea- 
sons. 

In  the  first  place,  a  large  number  of  the  par- 
ents living  in  our  modern  society  are  incapable 
of  educating  their  children ;  for  this  reason  so- 
ciety furnishes  the  school  and  makes  attendance 
upon  it  compulsory.  This  action  is  often  ex- 
plained as  part  of  its  function  of  protection. 
Society  is  said  to  be  insuring  itself  against  the 
dangers  of  ignorance.  There  are  economic  rea- 
sons also;  trained  intellects  and  skilled  workers 
increase  the  national  wealth.  And  there  may 
surely  be  ethical  reasons,  for  the  training  ought 
to  result  in  better  lives  and  in  a  more  orderly 
and  more  peaceful  community.  Thus  society 
takes  the  children  whose  parents  are  incapable 
of  fulfilling  the  parental  function,  and  gives 
them  that  equipment  for  good  living  which  they 
could  not  hope  to  receive  in  their  homes.     The 


180  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

school  is  thru,  in  part,  intended  to  supply  de- 
of  parental  training. 
Bui  it  is  more  than  this.  If  there  were  no 
ignorant  or  degraded  households,  if  all  parents 
were  intelligent  and  conscientious,  there  would 
still  he  need  of  the  school,  as  a  specialized  edn- 
cational  function,  in  which  the  children  should 
receive  instruction  from  men  and  women  who, 
because  they  devote  their  lives  to  the  work  of 
teaching,  are  better  teachers  than  most  parents 
could  hope  to  be.  Division  of  labor  is  useful 
here  as  well  as  in  many  other  departments  of 
life.  It  is  impossible  for  most  parents  to  have 
the  technical  knowledge  necessary  to  teach  their 
children  all  the  different  kinds  of  knowledge 
which  they  wish  them  to  acquire.  Nor  have 
they  always  the  time  necessary  to  oversee  their 
children's  studies.  While  therefore  the  parents 
are  primarily  responsible  for  the  education  of 
their  children,  and  are  bound  to  see  that  it  is 
directed  to  the  right  ends  and  conducted  in  the 
best  manner,  they  are  justified  in  accepting  the 
assistance  which  the  school  affords  in  securing 
this  result.  Most  of  them,  indeed,  would  be 
highly  culpable  if  they  failed  to  avail  themselves 
of  this  important  agency  for  the  accomplishment 
of  a  purpose  which  must  lie  very  near  their 
hearts.  It  is  the  parent's  duty  to  supply  hia 
child   with  clothing;    but  it  is   not   any  longer 


PUBLIC    EDUCATION  181 

his  duty  to  have  the  clothing  spun  and  woven 
in  his  own  house;  there  is  a  better  way  of  ob- 
taining it.  It  is  his  duty  to  do  what  he  can  to 
preserve  the  child's  health;  but  it  may  not  al- 
ways be  his  duty  to  administer  remedies  in  sick- 
ness ;  it  may  be  wise  for  him  sometimes  to  call 
the  doctor.  Similarly,  it  is  his  duty  to  attend 
to  the  education  of  his  child,  and  if  he  is  as 
intelligent  as  he  ought  to  be,  he  can  do  a  great 
deal  of  that  work  himself;  he  ought  to  be  in- 
telligent enough  to  know  whether  it  is  well 
done ;  yet  it  will  probably  be  his  duty  to  send 
the  child  to  school. 

Nevertheless,  it  must  be  clearly  understood 
that  this  is,  fundamentally,  a  parental  function ; 
that  the  school  comes  in  to  supplement  the 
home;  that  its  ruling  aims  must  be  determined 
by  what  is  divinest  and  best  in  the  life  of  the 
home;  that  it  must  try  to  do  for  the  children 
what  the  wisest  and  best  fathers  and  mothers 
desire  to  do.  On  the  one  hand,  the  parent  must 
see  to  it  that  the  school  is  organized  and  con- 
ducted in  such  a  way  that  it  shall  carry  into 
effect  his  highest  purposes  for  his  children. 
He  has  no  right  to  surrender  his  children  to  an 
agency  which  is  not  capable  of  doing  for  his 
children  what  he  wants  done  for  them.  It  is 
too  true,  as  a  writer  in  a  recent  magazine  has 
said,  that  many  a  father  "comes  to  think  that 


182  social  SALVATION 

hi-,  son's  education,  like  a  suit  of  clothes,  once 
]>ui  into  tlif  hands  of  an  artisan  of  good  repute, 
ceases  to  be  a  matter  Eor  which  he  is  responsi- 
ble. A  father  may  not,  by  gift  of  staff  and 
scrip,  by  cries  of  '  Good  luck  '  and  %  ( rod  speed, " 
break  the  great  seal  of  the  paternal  bond.  A 
father  cannot  release  himself  by  putting  another 
in  his  place.  A  man  shall  answer  for  every 
act  and  every  omission  of  the  factor  to  whom  he 
has  intrusted  his  own  son.  If  a  son  do  wrong, 
if  he  surrender  to  low  things,  if  he  come  to 
misery,  then  must  the  father  be  condemned."1 
This  on  the  one  hand,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  home. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  school  must  be  quick 
to  seize  this  point  of  view  and  he  directed  by  it. 
Not  what  the  actual  home  or  the  average  home 
requires  of  it,  but  what  the  ideal  home  would 
demand  of  it,  this  must  be  the  aim  of  the  school. 
It  must  seek  to  do  for  the  children  what  the 
fathers  and  mothers  whose  instincts  are  surest, 
whose  standards  are  highest,  wish  to  have  done. 
It  must  try  to  give  to  the  children  who  come 
from  the  worst  homes,  and  from  indifferent 
homes,  the  kind  of  training  desired  in  the  best 
homes. 

Nothing  short  of  this  could  be  considered 
adequate  in  our  estimate  of  what  a  school  ought 
1  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  lxxxvii.  p.  69. 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  183 

to  be.  We  all  know  that  most  of  our  schools, 
in  their  administration,  fall  far  below  this  mark, 
but  none  of  them  can  rationally  aim  at  anything 
lower.  And  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that,  with 
this  for  its  ruling  purpose,  the  school  must  take 
a  very  high  rank  among  social  institutions ;  that 
it  is  invested  with  a  sacred  character.  Great 
responsibilities  devolve  upon  it;  exalted  service 
is  required  of  it;  those  who  take  part  in  its 
work  ought  to  be  large-minded,  pure-minded, 
high-minded  men  and  women.  Sharp,  tricky, 
mercenary,  insincere,  unscrupulous  characters 
are  as  much  out  of  place  in  the  school-room  as 
in  the  pulpit.  We  cannot  always  have  ideal 
teachers,  any  more  than  ideal  preachers;  but 
character  is  quite  as  essential  in  the  one  calling 
as  in  the  other. 

Moreover  it  is  plain  that  the  essential  quali- 
fication of  the  ideal  teacher  must  be  a  genuine 
affection.  The  intellectual  equipment  is  a  mat- 
ter of  course;  I  need  not  insist  on  that;  that  is 
of  the  rudiments.  The  deeper  need  is  the  same 
feeling  toward  these  pupils  that  the  best  and 
wisest  parents  have  for  them ;  the  discernment 
which  only  love  can  give  of  their  needs,  their 
deficiencies,  their  powers,  their  perils ;  a  strong 
wish  to  give  them  the  restraint,  the  encourage- 
ment, the  guidance,  the  stimulus  they  need,  — 
to  enable  them  to  realize  themselves.     The  ideal 


184  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

teacher  musl  therefore  be  a  genuine  philanthro- 
pist, a  lover  of  his  kind,  one  to  whom  nothing 
is  bo  interesting  as  human  character.     He  must 
be  lull  of  what  we  ought  to  mean  when  we  use 
thai  hackneyed  religious  phrase,  "loveof  souls."* 
For  souls,  let  us  keep  saying,  are  just  human 
beings,   nothing  else;    and  their  wonderful   en- 
dowments, prerogatives,  capabilities,  are  worthy 
of  the  enthusiastic  devotion  of  a  man  or  of  an 
angel.    To  discern  the  possibilities  hidden  under 
the  uncouth    exterior,   the  soul  of  goodness  in 
the  turbulent  nature;    to  awaken  the  dull  mind, 
to  steady  the  wayward  will,  to  lift  up  the  true 
ideals  before  generous  spirits,  —  there  can  be 
no  nobler  or  more  sacred  work  than  this  out- 
side of  heaven.     It  is  often,  no  doubt,  very  dis- 
couraging work,  almost  heart-breaking  work,  be- 
cause there  is  so  little  response  to  all  these  high 
endeavors.     Children  come  to  the  school  from 
homes  in  which  no  such  thoughts  are  cherished; 
come  with  an  inheritance  of  stupidity  and  in- 
difference to  the  highest  things ;  come  with  their 
minds   filled  with  perverted    ideas   of   life   and 
conduct,   and    it    is  hard    for  the  most  earnest 
teacher  to  gain   any   influence  over  them.      As 
Dr.  Stanley  Hall  has  told  us,  we  shall  never  have 
the  ideal  school  until  we  have  the  ideal  home. 
And  when  the  teacher  tries  to  lift  up  the  stand- 
ard of  the  ideal  home  before  children  who  come 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  185 

from  homes  that  are  far  below  the  ideal,  the 
task  is  often  discouraging.  But  this  is  the 
nature  of  the  work  to  be  done,  and  this  is  the 
spirit  in  which  it  ought  to  be  done.  The  school 
fulfills  its  true  function  when  it  is  animated  by 
this  purpose.  The  school  has  inherited  the 
highest  function  of  the  home,  and  the  law  of 
the  school  must  therefore  be  the  law  of  the 
home,  which  is  the  law  of  love.  Underneath 
all  the  intellectual  qualifications  and  the  peda- 
gogical preparations  must  lie  the  enthusiasm  of 
humanity  in  its  highest  form,  the  deep  and  gen- 
uine desire  to  help  these  boys  and  girls  to  win 
a  worthy  and  beautiful  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. 

Let  no  one  imagine  that  this  is  any  Utopian 
suggestion.  No  one  who  knows  many  teachers 
will  entertain  such  an  idea.  There  are,  indeed, 
many  persons  in  the  teaching  profession  who 
come  far  short  of  this,  but  there  are  not  a  few 
whose  aim  is  nothing  lower  than  this;  whose 
work,  as  they  understand  it,  is  the  kind  of  work 
which  I  have  tried  to  describe.  Teachers  of 
this  quality  were  mine  —  more  than  one  of 
them;  I  shall  never  repay  the  debt  I  owe  them. 
Such  teachers  have  taught  my  children;  for 
unselfish  devotion  to  their  highest  interests,  for 
cooperation  with  my  own  best  efforts  for  them, 
I  am  deeply  indebted  to  some  of  the  men  and 


186  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

women  under  whose  influence  my  children  have 
come  in  the  school-room.  And  I  think  I  am 
nnt  mistaken  in  my  impression  that  this  concep- 
tion of  the  seriousness  and  sacredness  of  the 
teacher's  work  is  becoming  uioiv  and  more  pre- 
valent. In  recent  conventions  of  teachers  which 
I  have  had  the  privilege  of  attending,  this  note 
has  often  been  struck,  and  the  response  to  it 
has  been  surprisingly  prompt  and  emphatic. 

If,  then,  the  ideal  school  inherits  the  highest 
function  of  the  home,  what  must  it  undertake 
to  do  for  the  children  intrusted  to  it?  What 
must  be  its  specific  aims?  We  may  sum  them 
up  in  two  propositions :  — 

1.  The  school  must  aid  the  pupil  to  realize 
himself,  to  become  what  he  was  meant  to  be. 

2.  The  school  must  teach  the  pupil  how  to 
live  with  others,  how  to  identify  his  own  inter- 
ests with  the  interests  of  his  fellows. 

These  two  purposes  can  never  be  separated 
in  life,  for  neither  can  be  accomplished  without 
the  other,  but  it  may  be  well  to  consider  them 
separately. 

1.  The  school  must  recognize  the  value  of 
the  individual,  and  must  seek  to  develop  the 
child  along  the  lines  of  his  highest  endowment, 
in  such  a  way  that  he  shall  become  a  complete 
and  full-rounded  personality.  There  is  danger 
of  uniform  patterns  in  education,  of  trying  to 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  187 

run  all  minds  in  one  mould.  That  must  be 
avoided.  Wise  teachers  always  try  to  avoid  it. 
Every  boy  must  be  himself,  and  every  girl  her- 
self; the  Creator's  image  and  superscription 
stamped  on  this  nature  must  not  be  obliterated. 
This  is  not  saying  that  faults  may  not  be  cor- 
rected or  weaknesses  removed  by  discipline ;  the 
faults  and  the  weaknesses  are  no  part  of  the 
divine  plan  for  this  life.  It  is  what  God  means 
this  pupil  to  become  that  we  are  to  fix  our 
thoughts  upon  and  help  him  to  attain.  The 
point  I  am  insisting  on  is  that  the  character 
which  the  school  must  seek  to  develop  is  a  whole, 
round,  complete  character,  —  a  human  integer; 
not  a  social  cipher,  but  a  significant  figure;  a 
person  capable  of  self -direction  and  self-mainte- 
nance. Of  one  thing  we  must  make  ourselves 
sure,  that  the  individual  comes  to  his  own  and 
holds  his  own,  in  all  our  social  mutations.  A 
commonwealth  of  nobodies  must  come  to  no- 
thing, no  matter  how  benevolent  its  social  pro- 
gramme may  be.  Therefore  all  our  discipline  of 
education  must  brace  the  pupil  to  stand  on  his 
own  feet,  do  his  own  thinking,  conquer  his  own 
difficulties,  work  out  his  own  salvation.  The 
love  of  the  teacher  for  the  pupil  must  not  be  the 
weak  indulgence  of  the  overfond  parent,  who 
releases  the  child  from  responsibility  and  duty, 
from  struggle  and  effort,  but  the  clear  firmness 


188  .soi'IAL  SALVATION 

of  the  wise  parent  who  holds  the  child  steadily 
to  his  work  and  helps  him  to  win  such  a  mastery 
of  his  powers  as  shall  make  him  the  lord  of 
circumstance  and  n<>t  its  slave. 

I  am  thinking,  when  I  say  this,  of  the  school 
as  a  social  institution,  and  of  its  great  business 
of  preparing  these  boys  and  girls  to  take  their 
place  and  do  their  work  in  the  social  order. 
For  the  secure  foundation  of  democratic  soeiety 
must  be  men  and  women  who  are  not  fractions 
but  integers;  who  can  think  and  judge  for 
themselves.  "Democratic  government,"  says  a 
late  writer,  "is  the  standing  together  of  a  mul- 
titude of  men  who  could  each  stand  alone.  Its 
business  is  to  balk  the  mob  of  the  fraudulent 
gains  of  a  sordid  good  fellowship  and  to  brace 
them  to  moral  independence.  As  the  scheme  of 
the  creation  is  the  integrating  of  free  souls  out 
of  the  soul  of  God,  and  as  God  thrusts  forth  his 
child  and  veils  his  own  face  with  ever  thicker 
veils,  waiting  with  infinite  restraint  for  the  man 
to  act  from  within  himself  in  original  love,  so 
democratic  government  must  reflect  the  auster- 
ity of  God;  must  break  up  the  solidarity  of 
passion  and  pelf  to  the  ends  of  unanimity,  — 
the  voluntary  cooperation  of  free  persons."1 
To  develop  this  free  personality  in  the  pupil  is 
the  first  jjreat  business  of  the  school. 
1  The  Religion  of  Democracy,  p.  103. 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  189 

2.  But  the  other  purpose  of  teaching  the 
pupil  to  live  with  others,  —  of  inspiring  him 
with  social  sentiments  and  social  aims  —  is  in- 
separably connected  with  this.  The  school 
must  teach  the  pupil  to  love  himself  enough  to 
realize  himself,  to  become  what  God  meant  him 
to  be,  and  it  must  also  teach  him  to  love  his 
neighbor  as  himself.  With  all  his  gettings,  the 
pupil  ought  to  get  from  the  school  the  under- 
standing of  this  great  truth  that  we  are  mem- 
bers one  of  another,  and  must  be  helpers  one  of 
another;  that  we  must  not  look  upon  our  own 
things  exclusively,  but  also  on  the  things  of 
others;  that  duties  are  more  fundamental  than 
rights  in  the  perfect  social  order.  The  whole 
life  of  the  school  ought  to  express  this  genuine 
fraternity.  It  is  one  great  task  of  the  family 
to  socialize  its  members,  to  fill  them  with  the 
sentiments  and  drill  them  in  the  habits  which 
shall  fit  them  to  take  their  place  in  a  Christian- 
ized society.  The  school,  as  the  inheritor  of  the 
work  of  the  home,  has  the  same  work  to  do. 

In  speaking  not  long  ago  of  the  motives  ap- 
pealed to  in  the  school-room,  I  said  that  the 
competitive  spirit  was  largely  relied  upon  to 
secure  good  work.  A  teacher,  whose  knowledge 
of  present  methods  is  better  than  mine,  thought 
my  statement  too  strong,  and  expressed  the 
opinion  that  such  motives  are  not  now  greatly 


190  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

relied  on,  and  that  Buch  appeals  have  been  to  a 
-rent  extent  abandoned.  I  have  no  doubt  this 
is  true,  in  many  of  the  best  schools.  But  the 
conditions  to  which  I  referred  must  still  exist, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  for  I  find  John  Dewey, 
professor  of  Pedagogy  in  the  University  of 
Chicago,  saying  this  in  a  recent  publication :  — 

"In  the  school-room  the  motive  and  the  ce- 
ment of  social  organization  are  alike  wanting. 
Upon  the  ethical  side  the  tragic  weakness  of 
the  present  school  is  that  it  endeavors  to  prepare 
future  members  of  the  social  order  in  a  medium 
in  which  the  conditions  of  the  social  spirit  are 
eminently  wanting.  .  .  .  The  mere  absorption 
of  facts  and  truths  is  so  exclusively  individual 
an  affair  that  it  tends  very  naturally  to  pass  into 
selfishness.  There  is  no  obvious  social  motive 
for  the  acquirement  of  mere  learning,  there  is 
no  clear  social  gain  in  success  thereat.  Indeed, 
almost  the  only  measure  of  success  is  a  competi- 
tive one,  in  the  bad  sense  of  that  term  —  a  com- 
parison of  results  in  the  recitation  or  in  the  ex- 
amination, to  see  which  child  has  succeeded  in 
getting  ahead  of  others  in  storing  up,  in  accu- 
mulating the  maximum  of  information."1 

Just  how  this  can  be  avoided  I  do  not  know, 
nor  am  I  sure  that  it  is  altogether  evil;  I mt 
there  is  plainly  a  tendency  here  which  needs  to 
1  The  School  and  Society,  pp.  28,  29. 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  191 

be  well  watched,  and  a  great  need  of  finding 
some  adequate  means  of  awaking  and  cultivat- 
ing that  feeling  of  identity  of  interest,  that 
social  sympathy,  which  is  the  only  bond  of  peace- 
ful and  stable  society.  Professor  Dewey  thinks 
that  he  finds  such  a  corrective  to  the  egoistic 
tendencies  of  school  life  in  the  industrial  train- 
ing which  is  finding  place  in  some  of  our  school 
systems.  Doubtless  most  of  us  have  considered 
that  to  be  mainly  intended  to  fit  the  pupil  to 
take  care  of  himself,  and  it  certainly  has  a  val- 
uable work  to  do  in  that  direction,  but  Profes- 
sor Dewey's  observation  points  out  its  socializ- 
ing tendency :  — 

"The  difference,"  he  says,  "that  appears 
when  occupations  are  made  the  articulating 
centres  of  school  life  is  not  easy  to  describe  in 
words;  it  is  a  difference  in  motive,  of  spirit, 
and  atmosphere.  As  one  enters  a  workshop  in 
which  a  group  of  children  are  actively  engaged 
in  the  preparation  of  food,  the  psychological 
difference,  the  change  from  more  or  less  passive 
and  inert  recipiency  and  restraint  to  one  of 
buoyant,  outgoing  energy  is  so  obvious  as  fairly 
to  strike  one  in  the  face.  Indeed,  to  those 
whose  image  of  the  school  is  rigidly  set,  the 
change  is  sure  to  give  a  shock.  But  the  change 
in  the  social  attitude  is  equally  marked.  .  .  . 
When  the  school  work  consists  in  simply  learn- 


192  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

ing  lessons,  mutual  assistance,  instead  of  being 
the  most  natural  form  of  cooperation  and  asso- 
ciation, becomes  a  clandestine  effort  to  relieve 
one's  neighbor  of  his  proper  duties.  W*  1 1< ■  1 1  ac- 
tive work  is  going  on,  all  this  is  changed.  Help- 
ing  others,  instead  of  being  a  form  of  charity 
which  impoverishes  the  recipient,  is  simply  an 
aid  in  setting  free  the  powers  and  furthering 
the  impulse  of  the  one  helped.  A  spirit  of  free 
communication,  of  interchange  of  ideas,  sugges- 
tions, results,  both  successes  and  failures  of 
previous  experiences,  becomes  the  dominating 
note  of  the  recitation.  So  far  as  emulation  en- 
ters in,  it  is  in  the  comparison  of  individuals, 
not  with  regard  to  the  quantity  of  information 
personally  absorbed,  but  with  regard  to  the 
quality  of  the  work  done  —  the  genuine  commu- 
nity standard  of  value.  In  an  informal  but  all 
the  more  pervasive  way  the  school  life  organizes 
itself  on  a  social  basis."1 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  value  of  the  par- 
ticular method  suggested  by  Professor  Dewey, 
the  result  which  he  reports  is  the  thing  to  be 
aimed  at.  Somehow  the  school  must  find  a  way 
to  cultivate  the  social  temper,  the  habit  of  co- 
operation, the  spirit  of  service,  the  conscious- 
of  fraternity.  The  fact  that  we  live  to- 
gether in  the  community,  not  to  get  out  of  it  all 
l  The  School  and  Society,  pp.  28-30. 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  193 

that  we  can,  but  to  give  all  we  can  of  unselfish 
ministry  to  one  another  and  to  the  common  wel- 
fare, is  the  truth  that  should  somehow  be  made 
fundamental  in  the  teaching  of  the  school. 

It  must  be  evident  to  all  who  will  reflect  upon 
it  that  the  school  can  never  fulfill  its  true  func- 
tion until  it  clearly  sets  before  itself  this  great 
aim  of  socializing  the  pupil.  Merely  to  sharpen 
intellects  and  discipline  powers  that  may  be 
used  in  pushing  and  fighting,  in  grasping  and 
holding  fast,  is  not  the  true  work  of  the  school ; 
it  must  make  men  and  women  of  these  boys  and 
girls,  men  and  women  who  can  stand  alone ;  but 
they  must  be  men  and  women  who  stand  to 
serve,  not  to  strive;  to  help,  not  to  hurt;  to  lift 
up  the  fallen,  and  not  to  trample  on  the  weak. 

It  is  a  great  and  beautiful  service  to  which 
the  school  calls  men  and  women.  How  high 
and  sacred  it  is,  many  of  us  do  not  realize.  If 
we  did,  we  should  be  more  careful  about  the 
choice  of  those  to  whom  these  great  interests 
are  intrusted,  and  we  should  guard  with  vigi- 
lance the  portals  of  the  temples  where  this 
priesthood  of  learning  performs  its  ministry, 
lest  anything  that  worketh  harm  or  shame 
should  enter  therein.  And  I  know  not  where 
the  responsibility  for  this  guardianship  rests 
more  heavily  than  on  the  Christian  ministry. 
If  the  function  of  the  public  school  is  what  we 


194  social  SALVATION 

have  seen  it  to  be,  then  its  work  ia  essentially 
the  same  as  that  of  the  church.  To  build  char- 
acter and  t<>  strengthen  the  social  bond  is  its 
high  calling,  and  to  work  like  this  the  Christian 
minister  cannot  be  indifferent.  If  there  is  any 
danger  that  the  school  will  be  turned  away  from 
this  high  aim,  he  is  the  man  above  all  others 
who  ought  to  be  vigilant  to  avert  that  danger. 
It  is  for  him,  more  than  any  other  man  in  the 
community,  to  see  that  the  ideals  which  guide 
in  public  education  be  kept  high  and  true. 
The  interests  for  which  the  public  schools,  when 
rightly  guided,  are  working,  are  the  interests  to 
which  he  has  consecrated  his  life.  The  methods 
of  the  church  differ  somewhat  from  the  methods 
of  the  school,  and  the  minister  is  not  called  to 
impose  his  theology  or  his  ecclesiasticism  upon 
the  school  administration:  hut  he  ought  to  be 
broad-minded  enough  to  see  that  the  high  pur- 
pose of  the  school  is  one  to  which  he  can  give 
a  vigorous  support;  and  that  he  is  bound,  as 
a  public  teacher,  to  contribute  what  he  can  of 
light  and  leading  to  this  great  enterprise.  His 
right  to  take  an  active  interest  in  public  educa- 
tion will  be  conceded. 

The  Christian  minister  is  likely  to  find  the 
public  school  teachers  of  his  neighborhood  peo- 
ple well  worth  knowing.  They  are  not  all  per- 
fect, any  more  than  the  ministers  themselves; 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  195 

but  there  is  no  class  among  our  citizens  whose 
aims,  on  the  whole,  are  higher,  or  whose  work 
is  done  in  a  better  spirit.  Many  of  these  teach- 
ers will  be  members  of  your  churches,  and  you 
will  find  them  among  the  most  devoted  and  the 
most  useful  of  your  helpers.  And  you  will 
constantly  be  encouraged  to  find  how  steadily 
and  patiently  many  of  them  are  endeavoring,  in 
their  daily  work,  to  lead  the  children  under 
their  care  in  the  ways  of  life.  With  the  teach- 
ers of  his  vicinage,  the  minister  ought  to  be  on 
the  best  of  terms.  To  support  their  true  aims, 
to  confirm  their  highest  purposes,  to  give  them 
what  cheer  and  courage  and  inspiration  he  can 
in  their  difficult  work,  is  one  of  his  high  privi- 
leges. 

He  will  find,  also,  as  he  becomes  familiar 
with  the  life  of  the  schools,  that  there  is  great 
and  constant  need  of  lifting  up  the  thoughts  of 
the  people  concerning  the  nature  of  the  work 
they  have  to  do.  There  is  a  constant  tendency 
to  lower  the  standards  of  public  education ;  to 
put  the  emphasis  of  our  demand  upon  that  which 
is  lowest  in  its  work  instead  of  that  which  is 
highest;  to  value  the  school  as  an  economic 
rather  than  a  social  force.  An  education,  in 
the  view  of  the  great  majority  of  parents,  is 
simply  an  equipment  for  gaining  a  livelihood. 
That  end  is  not  to  be  despised,  but  it  is  not  the 


19G  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

highest,  for  the  Life  is  more  than  food  and  the 

body  than  raiment.  The  utilitarian  side  of 
education  must  be  considered,  and  provided 
for;  the  movements  in  the  direction  of  manual 
training  are  laudable;  nevertheless,  even  in 
these,  a  true  insight  chiefly  rejoices  because  of 
the  gains  which  they  will  bring  to  character. 
The  mechanical  and  domestic  training  which 
are  thus  offered  will  be  mainly  useful  in  help- 
ing our  boys  and  girls  to  see  the  dignity  of  pro- 
ductive labor,  and  in  turning  their  thoughts 
away  from  the  crowded  paths  of  trade  and  sp  0- 
ulation. 

One  of  the  great  difficulties  with  which  ear- 
nest  teachers  have  to  contend  is  the  coarse  and 
low  philosophy  of  life  which  many  of  the  chil- 
dren bring  with  them  from  their  homes:  which 
makes  them  blind  to  the  uses  of  any  study  that 
does  not  seem  to  contribute  directly  to  some 
form  of  money-making;  and  which  leaves  wholly 
out  of  sight  the  value  of  the  knowledge  by 
which  their  life  is  broadened,  their  tastes  are 
refined,  their  ideals  exalted,  and  their  power  to 
serve  their  generation  increased.  One  great 
reason  why  our  life  is  so  sordid,  — why  so  many 
men  pour  out  all  their  energies  in  money-grub- 
bing, is  that  our  people  are  so  poorly  educated 
that  they  do  not  know  how  else  to  find  enjoy- 
ment. The  higher  pleasures  of  life  have  no 
meaning  for  them. 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  197 

Doubtless  education  is  more  generally  dif- 
fused in  America  than  in  any  other  country; 
but  one  is  rather  startled  to  find  how  limited 
are  the  educational  attainments  of  the  average 
American.  A  computation  recently  made  by 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
shows  that  up  to  1900,  the  average  American 
had  received  998  days'  schooling;  which  means 
five  school  years,  of  forty  weeks.  "This  esti- 
mate includes  instruction  in  the  common 
schools,  and  also  in  private  schools  and  col- 
leges."1 The  computation  indicates  a  wonder- 
ful gain,  since  it  was  estimated  that  up  to  1800, 
the  total  schooling  enjoyed  by  the  average 
American  had  been  only  82  days.  During  the 
century  the  amount  of  education  imparted  to 
each  citizen  had  been  multiplied  twelve-fold. 
But  five  years  of  schooling  is  not  enough  to 
give  a  human  being  an  adequate  equipment  for 
the  life  of  this  time.  It  is  somewhat  disquiet- 
ing to  know  that  the  education  of  the  aver- 
age man  and  woman  stops  with  the  fifth  grade 
of  the  primary  school.  One  reason  of  this  is 
the  wholly  inadequate  idea,  in  the  minds  of  the 
parents,  of  what  education  is  for;  the  notion 
that  its  significance  is  summed  up  in  breadwin- 
ning :  the  failure  to  see  that  to  live  is  something 

1  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1899-1900,  vol.  i. 
p.  xvi. 


198  mx'IAI.  SALVATION 

more  than  to  get  a  living.  To  a  popular  jour- 
nal asking  the  question,  "Doea  a  college  educa- 
tion pay?"    President  Hyde  gave  this  answer: 

"To  be  at  home  in  all  lands  and  all  ages;  to 
count  nature  a  familiar  acquaintance,  and  art 
an  intimate  friend;  to  gain  a  standard  for  the 
appreciation  of  other  men's  work  and  the  criti- 
cism of  one's  own;  to  carry  the  keys  of  the 
world's  library  in  one's  pocket,  and  feel  its  re- 
sources behind  one  in  whatever  task  he  under- 
takes ;  to  make  hosts  of  friends  among  the  men 
of  one's  own  age  who  are  to  be  the  leaders  in 
all  walks  of  life;  to  lose  one's  self  in  generous 
^  nthusiasm  and  cooperate  with  others  for  com- 
mon ends;  to  learn  manners  from  students  who 
are  gentlemen  and  form  character  from  profes- 
sors who  are  Christians  —  these  are  the  returns 
of  a  college  for  the  best  four  years  of  one's 
life."  l  One  can  imagine  Mr.  Gradgrind  rub- 
bing his  eyes  over  that  reply.  The  meaning  of 
it  would  be  far  from  him.  Yet  this  is  the  real 
value  of  a  college  education,  and  all  education 
is  precious  in  proportion  as  it  leads  the  pupil 
along  this  road,  and  opens  his  mind  and  his 
heart  to  the  real  significance  of  the  life  he  is 
living,  to  the  beauty  and  wonder  of  the  world 
about  him.  The  chief  end  of  education  is  to 
put  the  man  into  harmony  with  his  environ- 
1  The  Forum,  vol.  xxxii.  pp.  561,  562. 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  199 

nient,  not  merely  industrial,  but  natural  and 
social  and  spiritual;  to  open  the  windows  of 
his  soul  that  the  light  of  the  universe  may  shine 
in;  to  fit  him  to  stand  in  his  lot,  and  receive 
his  portion,  and  do  his  work  as  one  of  the  sons 
of  God.  If  the  boys  and  girls  of  your  congre- 
gation, and  their  fathers  and  mothers  too,  do 
not  get  from  you  some  inkling  of  these  higher 
meanings  of  education,  your  work  as  ministers 
will  be  very  imperfectly  done. 

The  weakness  of  our  public  school  system  at 
the  present  time  is  found  in  the  character  of  the 
governing  boards,  by  which  the  schools  are  con- 
trolled. This  is  not  the  universal  fact.  In 
many  of  the  smaller  towns  and  cities  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  earlier  periods  are  in  force,  and 
men  are  selected  to  govern  the  schools  who  have 
some  fitness  both  in  knowledge  and  in  character 
for  their  high  trust.  In  a  few  of  our  larger 
cities,  also,  serious  attempts  have  been  made  to 
put  the  management  into  capable  hands.  But 
it  is  true  of  a  great  many  communities  that  the 
men  chosen  by  the  people  for  this  most  difficult 
service  are,  for  the  most  part,  men  who  are  ut- 
terly destitute  of  the  intelligence  and  the  expe- 
rience which  the  service  requires.  The  schools 
have  been  dragged  into  party  politics,  and  the 
ward  bosses  dictate  the  nomination  of  members 
of  the  school  board.     Small  politicians  in  each 


200  MXIAI.    SALVATION' 

locality  seek  the  Domination  Cor  purposes  of 
their  own.  There  is  a  little  patronage  to  dis- 
pense; janitors  and  other  officers  are  to  be  ap- 
pointed; the  politician  hopes,  by  the  control  of 
this  patronage,  to  construct  for  himself  a  Bmall 
machine  which  will  be  useful  in  pushing  him 
for  some  more  lucrative  position.  There  are 
also  contracts  to  let  and  considerable  sums  of 
money  to  spend;  there  are  school-book  publish- 
ing companies  to  deal  with  whose  methods  are 
notorious;  and  the  less  scrupulous  hope  to  get 
something  for  their  votes  in  important  transac- 
tions. Such  are  the  influences  which  guide  the 
selection,  in  many  cases,  of  the  men  who  con- 
trol our  schools,  who  manage  their  important 
financial  operations,  who  determine  upon  courses 
of  study,  and  upon  the  choice  of  text-books, 
who  select  and  instruct  the  teachers.  It  is 
within  the  truth  to  say  that  in  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  cases  all  these  great  questions  are  decided 
by  the  votes  of  men  who  arc  utterly  and  bru- 
tally ignorant  of  all  the  matters  with  which  they 
are  dealing,  and  who  are  guided  by  no  higher 
motive  than  their  own  corrupt  and  sordid  inter- 
est. It  is  amazing  that  the  American  people 
should  sit  still  and  see  this  great  institution  de- 
graded and  despoiled  after  this  fashion. 

The  only  reason  why  the  school-  in  many  com- 
munities have  not  been  ruined  is  that  the  teach- 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION  201 

ers  have  preserved  some  sense  of  the  sacredness 
of  their  vocation,  and  have  managed  to  hold  up 
the  standards.  Whatever  of  high-mindedness, 
and  honor,  and  devotion  to  truth  and  duty  find 
their  way  into  our  schools  come,  in  most  cases, 
from  our  teachers,  and  are  not  the  inspiration 
of  the  governing  boards.  In  their  own  associa- 
tions the  teachers  cultivate  these  higher  inter- 
ests ;  such  contact  as  they  have  with  the  school 
boards  is  often  more  apt  to  lower  their  aims  and 
blur  their  convictions  than  to  have  any  uplifting 
influence.  Observe  that  I  am  speaking  of  what 
is  often  true,  —  of  what,  I  fear,  is  true  in  the 
majority  of  our  larger  communities ;  not  of  what 
is  universally  true.  I  hope  that  you  may  all 
find  your  ministry  appointed  to  you  in  places 
like  my  own  old  home  of  Springfield,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, where  the  best  men  of  the  community 
were  on  the  school  board,  and  all  the  affairs  of 
the  schools  were  guided  with  the  broadest  intel- 
ligence and  the  most  inspiring  wisdom.  But  if 
such  should  not  be  your  happy  lot;  if,  instead, 
you  should  find  yourselves  in  communities  where 
the  great  interests  of  education  are  prostituted 
to  the  service  of  ward  politics,  there  will  be  a 
call  upon  you  for  some  faithful  testimony  and 
some  courageous  leadership  against  a  great  in- 
iquity. If  the  function  of  the  public  school  is 
what  this  argument  has  shown  it  to  be,  then  it 


202  social  SALVATION 

is  a  monstrous  absurdity  to  leave  it  in  the  hands 

of  such  men  as  arc  now  controlling  it  iii  a  great 
many  American  communities. 

There  are  other  phases  of  popular  education 
of  which,  if  there  were  time,  I  could  find  much 
to  say  to  you.  The  public  libraries  and  reading- 
rooms,  the  university  extension  lectures,  the 
Chautauqua  circles,  the  educational  classes  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  the 
Citizenship  Clubs  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
Societies,  all  these  and  many  similar  institutions 
and  enterprises  will  enlist  your  interest,  and 
find  in  you,  I  am  sure,  judicious  and  efficient 
support.  Your  own  churches,  wherever  they 
may  be,  will  be,  I  have  no  doubt,  educational 
institutions  of  recognized  value  to  the  communi- 
ties in  which  they  stand.  You  will  be  preachers 
of  the  gospel,  that  is  the  first  clause  in  your 
commission;  but  3-ou  will  be  teachers  also,  that 
is  part  of  your  high  calling.  And  you  will  find 
ways  of  making  your  pnlpit  minister,  week-days 
and  Sundays,  to  the  higher  intelligence  of  the 
community;  of  winning  for  your  churches  the 
respect  and  gratitude  of  all  true  children  of 
the  light.  For  this  is  one  of  the  ways  of  saving 
men,  — of  saving  them  from  the  doom  of  dark- 
ened minds  and  sordid  pleasures,  and  of  leading 
them  into  communion  with  (rod  through  his 
works,  and  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  lives  of  his  children. 


VII 

THE   REDEMPTION   OF   THE   CITY 

Many  of  you,  I  trust,  will  have  the  good 
fortune  to  begin  your  ministry  in  country 
churches.  The  field  of  labor  which  is  offered 
to  an  enterprising  young  minister  in  a  rural 
church  appears  to  me  very  attractive.  The 
great  obstacle  to  success  in  these  small  commu- 
nities is  the  appalling  number  of  sects  in  most 
of  them,  among  which  the  Christians  are  subdi- 
vided. "Where  these  morbid  conditions  are  less 
acute,  and  any  church  has  a  fair  chance  of 
uniting  the  rural  community,  it  would  be  pos- 
sible for  the  right  sort  of  man  to  do  a  kind  of 
work  for  which  the  city  gives  a  much  less  at- 
tractive opportunity.  The  thing  to  be  done  is 
to  make  the  church  and  the  minister's  house 
the  centre  of  a  kind  of  social  settlement  into 
which  the  people  of  the  countryside  could  be 
gathered  into  groups  of  various  kinds  for  study 
and  wholesome  diversion  and  charitable  work. 
The  people  of  the  country  districts  are  not  apt 
to  be  paupers,  and  there  would  be  few  eleemosy- 


204  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

nary  features  connected  with  such  a  work:  but 
they  need  social  opportunities  Ear  more  than  the 
people  of  the  Blums  need  them;  and  I  believe 
that   the    idea  of    the  social    settlement    in  the 
city  could  be  adapted  to  the  country  districts  in 
a  way  which  would  give  great  vitality  to  the 
church   and   make  it   the   source  of  boundless 
benefits  to  the  people  in  its  neighborhood.     A 
young  minister  and  his  wife,  both  of  whom  were 
clear-headed  and  fresh-hearted,  with   invention, 
and  initiative,  and  the  love  of  souls, — that  is, 
of  men  and  women  and  boys  and  girls,  —  could 
go   into  a  community   of   this  kind   and  work 
wonders.      I  lived  in  the  country  until  I   was 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  I  know  the  country 
people  well  enough  to  be  sure  that  they  would 
respond  in  a  very  enthusiastic  way  to  such  lead- 
ership.  Clubs  of  boys  and  girls  could  be  formed ; 
classes  for  the  study  of  good  literature  and  of 
social  questions  could   be   organized;   debating 
societies,  natural  history  societies,  choral  unions, 
could  be  tried;  the  life  of  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood could  be  filled  with  light.     The  people  of 
the  cities  do  not  need  these  things,  and  do  not 
care  for  them  half  so  much  as  the  people  of  the 
country  would  care;    the  church  which  under- 
took in  this  way  to  minister  to  their  need  would 
win  their  enthusiastic  loyalty.      I  suppose  that 
the   grange,   in  many  places,  does  supply  this 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF   THE   CITY       205 

need  to  some  extent ;  but  it  is  the  kind  of  work 
that  the  church  ought  to  do.  The  deeper  spir- 
itual needs  of  the  people  should  by  no  means 
be  neglected;  the  Sunday  preaching  services 
should  be  the  central  fire  from  which  all  this 
warmth  and  light  should  radiate;  it  should  be 
evident  to  all  that  the  motive  of  all  this  work 
is  a  genuine  Christly  love;  it  should  only  be  a 
new  revelation  of  what  Christianity  is  able  to 
do  to  vitalize  and  irradiate  the  whole  life  of 
man. 

That  is  all  there  is,  my  brethren,  of  the  lec- 
ture that  should  have  been  written,  and  that  I 
wanted  to  write,  about  the  social  life  of  the 
country  church.  The  subject  has  greatly  inter- 
ested me,  and  I  wanted  to  find  the  time  to  visit 
a  good  many  of  these  country  churches,  and 
talk  with  the  pastors  and  study  the  conditions 
on  the  ground,  so  that  I  might  speak  about  it 
from  adequate  knowledge.  I  could  not  do  that, 
and  I  am  therefore  compelled  to  dismiss  it  with 
these  rudimentary  suggestions.  I  hope  that 
you  will  get  some  one  else  to  take  it  up  who 
knows  all  about  it,  and  that  many  of  you  will 
be  fortunate  enough  to  work  out  the  problem 
for  yourselves. 

But  many  of  you  will  be  called  to  work  in 
the  cities;  all  of  you  will  find  that  your  lives 
and  your  labors  are  more  or  less  affected  by 


206  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

conditions  in  the  cities,  for  the  cities  are  be- 
coming, more  and  more,  a  dominating  influence 
in  our  whole  national  life;  and  it  is  of  the 
problem  of  the  city  that  I  have  promised  to 
speak  to  you  in  this  concluding  lecture. 

Of  all  the  social  questions  confronting  us,  this 
seems  to  me  the  most  difficult,  the  most  urgent, 
the  most  portentous.  The  clear  solution  of  this 
would  greatly  tend  to  the  abatement  of  several 
of  the  social  evils  which  we  have  been  consid- 
ering; for  good  government  in  the  cities  would 
check  the  growth  of  pauperism  and  restrain  the 
insolence  of  prostitution  and  put  to  flight  the 
armies  of  the  gamblers  and  compel  the  liquor- 
sellers  to  obey  the  laws.  Most  of  these  evils 
thrive  upon  the  inefficiency  and  corruption  of 
our  municipal  governments. 

No  one  who  has  lived  and  labored  for  many 
years  in  ill-governed  cities,  in  the  interests  of 
virtue,  can  fail  to  be  aware  of  the  evil  influence 
which  bad  government  exerts  upon  the  charac- 
ters of  those  who  live  under  it.  The  tone  of 
public  morality  is  affected;  the  convictions  of 
the  youth  are  blurred ;  the  standards  of  honor 
and  fidelity  are  lowei-ed.  That  which  in  the 
family  and  in  the  Sunday-school  and  in  the  day- 
school  and  in  the  pulpit  we  are  teaching  our 
children  to  regard  ;is  sacred,  the  bad  city  gov- 
ernment, by  the  whole  tenor  of  its  administra- 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       207 

tion,  openly  despises;  the  things  which  we  tell 
them  are  detestable  and  infamous,  the  bad  city 
government,  by  its  open  connivance  or  inaction, 
proclaims  to  be  honorable.  The  whole  weight 
of  the  moral  influence  of  a  municipal  govern- 
ment like  that  which  has  existed  until  recently 
in  New  York,  like  that  which  exists  to-day  in 
Philadelphia,  and  in  many  other  cities,  is  hos- 
tile to  honesty,  honor,  purity,  and  decency. 
The  preacher  of  righteousness  finds,  therefore, 
in  bad  municipal  government,  one  of  the  dead- 
liest of  the  evil  forces  with  which  he  is  called 
to  contend.  The  problem  of  the  city  is  a  pro- 
blem in  which  he  has  a  vital  interest,  a  question 
on  which  he  has  an  undoubted  right  to  speak. 

The  American  city  of  the  nineteenth  century 
has  been  notable  for  two  things,  the  rapidity  of 
its  growth  and  the  corruptness  of  its  civic  ad- 
ministration. The  population  of  the  whole  land 
has  been  growing  apace,  but  the  cities  have 
grown  at  the  expense  of  the  rural  districts. 
There  is  scarcely  a  town  of  five  thousand  inhab- 
itants, east  or  west,  which  lost  population  within 
the  past  fifty  years,  and  there  are  scores  and 
hundreds  of  towns  which  have  grown  within  that 
time  from  nothing  to  tens  or  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands; while  there  are  many  fertile  rural  dis- 
tricts, east  of  the  Mississippi,  of  which  the  pop- 
ulation is  considerably  less  to-day  than  it  was 


208  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

fifty  years  ago.  This  Feature  of  American  life 
is  paralleled  in  Europe.     The  cities  of  the  Old 

AVorlil  have  been  growing  during  the  last  cen- 
tury almost  as  rapidly  as  those  of  the  New,  and 
many  of  them,  also,  have  grown  at  the  expense 
of  the  agricultural  districts. 

American  cities  are  distinguished  also  for  the 
dishonesty  and  inefficiency  with  which  their 
business  is  administered.  This  is  not  the  uni- 
versal fact;  one  can  point  to  cities  here  and 
there  which  are  thoroughly  well  governed :  but 
I  fear  that  it  is  the  general  fact.  Most  of  these 
cities  are  encumbered  with  enormous  debts,  — 
debts  which  are  burdensome  to  industry  and 
thrift;  and  for  a  large  portion  of  these  del  its 
the  taxpaj^ers  have  never  had  and  never  will 
have  any  adequate  return.  The  municipal  gov- 
ernments have  been  used,  in  many  cases,  for 
spoiling  the  people.  To  accomplish  this,  cor- 
rupt alliances  have  been  formed  by  municipal 
politicians  with  the  disorderly  and  vicious 
classes,  and  a  free  rein  has  been  given  to  those 
malefactors  who  get  their  living  by  corrupting 
and  debauching  their  fellow  men.  Worse  than 
this  —  far  worse  in  every  way  —  are  the  cor- 
rupt alliances  which  have  been  made  between 
the  city  politicians  and  the  managers  of  quasi- 
public  corporations  by  which  valuable  franchises 
have    been    obtained  for  little   or  nothing,   and 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  CITY      209 

power  to  levy  tribute  upon  the  community  has 
been  granted  for  years  to  come.  These  corrupt 
relations  between  quasi-public  corporations  and 
city  governments  are  a  comparatively  recent 
development  in  most  of  our  cities.  The  great  ( 
value  of  these  franchises  has  not,  until  lately, 
been  appreciated  by  the  general  public.  The 
builders  of  street  railways,  the  promoters  of 
gas  companies  and  electric-lighting  companies, 
were  regarded  as  public  benefactors,  and  the 
public  was  willing  that  they  should  have  every- 
thing they  asked  for.  But  the  municipal  poli- 
ticians have  found  out  that  they  are  worth  some- 
thing to  them  at  any  rate;  and  for  the  last 
decade  they  have  been  reaping  freely  where 
they  had  not  sown,  and  gathering  abundantly 
where  they  had  not  strewed. 

We  are  warranted  by  revelations  which  have 
appeared,  east  and  west,  in  saying  that  there 
are  millions  on  millions  of  dollars  in  this  coun- 
try, ready  to  be  paid  for  franchises  by  which 
the  people  may  be  taxed  to  enrich  the  managers 
of  quasi-public  corporations.  It  is  generally 
believed  that  a  great  deal  of  money  has  been 
used  by  such  manipulators  in  electing  munici- 
pal officers  and  in  debauching  them  after  they 
were  elected.  It  is  largely  to  this  cause  that 
the  corrupt  character  of  our  present  city  gov- 
ernments is  due.     The  men  who  zealously  seek 


210  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

municipal  offices  are  apt  to  be  the  kind  <>f  men 
who  wish  tn  use  such  opportunities  of  gain  as 
the   corporations   afford    them.     Powerful   but 

silent  influences  are  all  the  while  at  work  in 
many  communities  to  secure  the  nomination  and 
election  of  men  who  can  be  used  in  this  way. 
And  the  men  who  manage  the  political  machin- 
ery are  often  believed  to  be  receiving  large 
contributions  from  the  managers  of  such  cor- 
porations, and  are  thus  under  obligation  to  aid 
them  in  securing  the  nomination  of  men  who 
will  be  serviceable  to  them. 

We  have  here  one  of  the  more  recent  and 
more  powerful  of  the  forces  at  work  to  produce 
municipal  misrule.     But  other  causes  lie  deeper. 

1.  We  must  admit  a  considerable  debasement 
of  the  average  intelligence  and  morality  of  the 
urban  populations,  due  to  several  causes :  — 

(1)  To  immigration,  which  drops  its  sediment 
largely  in  the  cities,  and  leaves  in  them  great 
masses  of  people  who  do  not  speak  the  English 
language,  and  who  can  have  no  conception  of 
the  duties  of  citizenship. 

(2)  To  industrial  crises  and  fluctuations  which 
push  multitudes  over  the  borders  of  self-main- 
tenance into  the  limbo  of  irresponsibility  and 
semi-mendicancy. 

(3)  To  the  constant  influx  of  ne'er-do-wells 
from  the   neighboring  country,   who  prefer  to 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE  CITY       211 

take  their  chances  of  livelihood  among  the  odd 
jobs  and  the  alms  of  a  city  rather  than  engage 
in  any  regular  industry. 

(4)  To  a  sentimental  and  undiscriminating 
charity,  which  creates  an  economic  demand  for 
beggars  and  tends  to  the  deterioration  of  char- 
acter. 

(5)  To  the  abandonment,  by  the  churches,  of 
those  districts  where  their  presence  is  most 
needed. 

(6)  To  the  absenteeism  of  large  numbers  who 
are  the  natural  leaders  of  the  municipality,  but 
who  have  removed  to  the  suburbs  and  lost  their 
citizenship  in  the  cities. 

To  these  and  doubtless  to  other  causes  we 
may  trace  a  certain  degree  of  debasement  in  the 
mental  and  moral  quality  of  urban  citizenship. 
If,  for  any  reason,  the  general  average  of  intel- 
ligence, thrift,  self-reliance,  and  virtue  in  any 
community  has  been  lowered,  we  shall  find  in 
this  deterioration  a  great  cause  of  failure  in  our 
municipal  governments. 

2.  Out  of  such  conditions  springs  the  dema- 
gogue as  naturally  and  as  quickly  as  the  toad- 
stool springs  from  the  compost  heap.  The 
demagogue  is  produced  by  these  conditions,  his 
interest  lies  in  perpetuating  them.  Action  and 
reaction  are  equal,  and,  in  this  case,  in  the  same 
direction. 


212  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

3.  The  thoroughgoing  partisanship  of  the 
reputable  people  is  another  prime  cause  of  bad 
government.  The  great  majority  of  moral  and 
upright  citizens  can  be  relied  on  to  vote  the 
regular  ticket  if  Beelzebub  is  the  nominee. 
This  infatuation  affects  deacons  and  elders  of 
churches,  Sunday-school  superintendents,  staid 
professional  men,  great  multitudes  of  citizens 
who  are  on  most  other  subjects  tolerably  sun.'. 
Such  being  the  combination,  the  disreputable 
classes,  who  are  never  partisans,  are,  of  course, 
easily  masters  of  the  situation.  The  dema- 
gogues, with  such  following  as  they  can  muster, 
hold  the  balance  of  power.  The  decent  people 
will  vote  the  straight  ticket;  they  need  not, 
then,  be  considered  in  making  nominations. 
Fernando  Wood  once  advised  "pandering  a 
little  to  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  community," 
but  that  is  not,  by  the  managers,  thought  to  be 
important.  The  problem  is  to  present  candi- 
dates who  will  be  acceptable  to  the  immoral 
sense  of  the  community. 

I  have  been  speaking,  in  these  last  sentences, 
in  the  present  tense,  when  perhaps  1  should 
have  spoken  in  the  past.  Signs  of  promise  have 
appeared,  here  and  there,  indicating  a  purpose 
in  some  quarters  to  break  the  shackles  ot  par- 
tisanship. But  in  reckoning  up  the  cau^s 
which    have  produced    the  evil  conditions  now 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       213 

existing,  this  must  be  named  as  one  of  the  most 
productive. 

4.  When  the  misrule  begins  to  be  intolerable, 
the  city  is  fain  to  flee  to  the  legislature  for  re- 
lief. Some  reorganization  is  proposed,  or  some 
statutory  contrivance  is  suggested,  by  which  it 
is  supposed  that  the  mischiefs  will  be  corrected. 
The  citizens  are  afraid  that  they  cannot  cope 
with  the  demagogues,  and  they  are  all  too  busy 
to  give  much  time  to  municipal  affairs,  so  they 
beg  the  legislature  to  take  the  job  of  governing 
the  city  off  their  hands.  Having  permitted  the 
municipality  to  fall  into  this  slough,  they  call 
on  some  power  above  them  to  come  down  and 
pull  it  out.  The  interference  of  the  legislature 
in  municipal  politics  is  not  apt  to  be  wholly 
beneficent.  It  has  been  discovered,  in  some  of 
our  states,  that  cities  can  be  reorganized  for 
partisan  purposes,  and  that  the  municipal  pa- 
tronage can  thus  be  used  as  a  make -weight  in 
state  and  national  elections.  Some  of  the  worst 
evils  in  our  city  governments  have  arisen  from 
this  source.  So  it  has  come  about  that  seven 
other  devils,  let  loose  from  the  State  House, 
and  worse  than  the  home-bred  demagogue,  have 
entered  into  the  City  Hall,  and  the  last  state 
of  that  municipality  was  worse  than  the  first. 

5.  What  Mr.   Charles  Francis  Adams   calls 
"the  disease  of  localism  "  is  one  cause  of  bad 


214  social  SALVATION 

government.  Every  American  city,  so  Ear  as 
I  know,  is  divided  into  wards:  each  ward  is 
erected  into  a  petty  political  principality,  and 
the  ward  "boss"  and  the  ward  "heeler"  are 

thus  called  into  existence.  Here  is  the  utt/its 
of  pestilent  politics.  The  ward,  as  a  political 
division,  calls  for  the  frequent  gerrymander, 
and  it  opens  the  city  council  to  the  active  oper- 
ations of  the  log-roller.  The  member  from 
each  ward  wants  something  which  none  of  the 
members  of  the  other  wards  would  vote  for  on 
its  merits ;  but  by  a  combination  of  interests  all 
these  selfish  schemes  are  realized,  and  their 
accumulated  burden  is  piled  upon  the  taxpayer. 
This  excess  of  localism  weakens  the  corporate 
unity  of  the  municipality;  it  results,  inevitably, 
in  the  deterioration  of  its  representatives  in 
the  council;  the  greediness  of  the  precinct  is 
fostered  at  the  expense  of  municipal  pride  and 
patriotism.  I  quite  agree  with  Mr.  Adams 
that  this  is  one  cause  of  the  low  condition  of 
municipal  politics. 

6.  Municipal  politics  follow  the  lines  of  na- 
tional politics,  and  are  thus  wholly  destitute  of 
meaning.  Neither  party,  in  a  municipal  con- 
test, has  any  ideas  to  contend  for;  nothing  is 
at  stake  but  the  possession  of  the  offices.  The 
only  principles  at  stake  are  John  Randolph's 
famous  seven,  five  loaves  and  two  fishes.      Poli- 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       215 

tics  which  rest  on  such  a  basis  are  not  likely  to 
rise  much  above  the  level  of  the  curbstone. 

If  such  are  some  of  the  causes  of  bad  gov- 
ernment in  our  American  cities,  then  it  may  be 
possible  to  indicate  some  practicable  remedies. 
Let  me  speak  first  of  certain  changes  which 
would,  in  my  judgment,  prove  helpful  in  secur- 
ing better  government,  —  changes  of  organiza- 
tion and  method.  I  do  not  put  much  weight  on 
these;  I  do  not  believe  that  any  mere  changes 
of  method  will  accomplish  much,  unless  deeper 
changes  in  the  character  and  purpose  of  the 
citizens  accompany  them;  but  a  good  method 
is  better  than  a  bad  one,  and  a  good  workman 
is  sometimes  crippled  by  a  poor  tool.  Some 
methods  of  governing  cities  are  better  than 
others,  and  we  are  bound  to  get  the  best. 

First,  then,  I  believe  that  it  would  be  well  to 
have  in  the  constitution  of  every  state  a  positive 
limit  upon  the  power  of  the  legislature  to  inter- 
fere in  municipal  affairs.  The  constitution  of 
every  state  should  furnish  a  few  simple  rules  to 
which  all  city  charters  must  conform,  and  should 
prescribe  the  methods  by  which  the  citizens  of 
every  city,  in  representative  conventions,  should 
frame  their  own  organic  law,  submitting  it, 
when  framed,  to  popular  approval.  In  some  of 
the  newer  states  this  liberty  is  given,  and  I 
regard  it  as  an  important  step  in  the  direction 


216  SOCIAL  sai.v  \Tio\ 

of  good  government.  The  people  <>f  each  city 
should  frame  their  own  charter,  as  the  people 
of  each  state  frame  their  own  constitution. 
Ami  considerable  freedom  should  be  given  in 
these  enabling  arts  for  the  construction  of  the 
municipal  machinery,  that  the  people  of  every 
community  may  be  permitted  to  express  their 
life  in  their  own  terms,  and  that  experiments  of 
various  kinds  may  be  tried  in  various  localities. 
Thus  the  right  of  home  rule,  in  the  largest 
sense,  should  be  guaranteed  to  every  city,  and 
it  should  be  made  impossible  for  the  citizens  to 
shirk  their  responsibility  for  good  government 
upon  the  legislature.  If  they  want  bad  gov- 
ernment, let  them  have  it,  to  their  hearts*  con- 
tent, and  know  that  they  and  nobody  else  are 
to  blame  for  it.  Such  a  measure  would  result, 
as  I  believe,  in  greatly  strengthening  municipal 
pride  and  patriotism.  The  city  corporation 
would  no  longer  be  a  mere  creature  of  the  legis- 
lature; it  would  be  the  work  of  the  people's 
own  hands,  and  they  would  feel  an  additional 
degree  of  responsibility  for  its  wise  administra- 
tion. 

2.  The  proposition  to  restrict  the  suffrage  in 
municipalities  is  frequently  heard.  The  rule 
prevailing  in  English  cities  appears  to  l>r  a  good 
one, — that  no  one  shall  vote  for  city  officers 
who    has   not   a  fixed   residence,    who   cannot 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF   THE   CITY       217 

show  that  he  is  the  occupier  of  definite  premises 
within  the  corporation  limits.  On  the  other 
hand,  every  such  occupier  of  city  premises  should 
have  the  right  to  vote  in  city  elections  whether 
his  domicile  be  in  the  city  or  not.  All  men,  or 
women  either,  who  own  or  rent  stores  or  shops 
or  offices  which  they  occupy  for  business  pur- 
poses, ought  to  be  permitted  to  register  and 
vote  in  municipal  elections.  They  are  stock- 
holders in  that  great  corporation  which  we  call 
the  city;  they  pay  taxes,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly; they  are  immediately  and  pecuniarily 
concerned  in  having  clean  streets,  good  sewer- 
age and  sanitation,  cheap  light,  pure  water,  ade- 
quate transportation  —  in  every  interest  which 
is  represented  in  the  city  government,  and  they 
ought  to  have  a  voice  in  that  government.  The 
fact  that  they  live  elsewhere,  and  have  a  voice 
in  other  local  governments,  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  be  permitted  to  vote  in  this 
municipality,  any  more  than  a  man  who  is  a 
stockholder  in  several  business  corporations 
should  be  forbidden  to  vote  in  more  than  one  of 
them.  A  man  should  vote  for  President  of  the 
United  States  or  for  member  of  Congress  or 
for  state  officers  in  only  one  place;  but  there  is 
no  reason  why  he  should  not  vote  for  municipal 
officers  in  the  city  where  he  spends  his  days  as 
well  as  in  the  city  where  he  spends  his  nights. 


218  M)('IAI.    .SALVATION 

This  is  the  rule  in  many  of  the  English  cities, 
and  I  can  think  of  no  principle  of  law  or  of 
political  Science  OI  of  morals  with  which  it  is 
in  conflict.  Conditions  would  be  materially 
improved  in  several  American  cities,  if  their 
business  nun  who  reside  in  the  suburbs  were 
permitted  to  take  part  in  their  municipal  affairs. 

3.  The  abolition  of  the  ward  as  a  political 
division  and  the  election  of  the  council  and  the 
board  of  education  upon  a  general  ticket  ap- 
pears also  to  me  a  measure  of  some  importance. 
This  would  involve  some  plan  of  proportion- 
ate or  minority  representation,  or  some  form  of 
cumulative  voting. 

4.  The  question  concerning  the  centralization 
of  executive  power  in  the  hands  of  the  mayor 
has  been  warmly  debated.  The  best  city  gov- 
ernments of  which  we  have  knowledge  —  those 
of  British  cities  —  are  governments  by  council ; 
all  the  executive  work  is  under  the  direction  of 
council  committees;  the  mayor  has  no  executive 
functions.  If  we  could  hope  to  secure,  in  our 
American  cities,  for  long  terms  of  years,  the 
services  in  the  council  of  from  forty  to  one 
hundred  of  the  ablest  and  most  responsible  men 
in  the  city,  such  a  system  might  be  trusted  to 
work  very  successfully.  The  English  municipal 
system  follows  the  analogy  of  the  English  Par- 
liament, and  it  has  been  working  thus  far  with 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       219 

great  efficiency.  But  the  conditions  in  this 
country  are  so  different  that  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  English  system  could  be  made  to 
work.  It  is  probable  that  we  shall  adhere  to 
our  method  of  separating  the  executive  from 
the  legislative  function,  and  if  that  is  done,  it  is 
undoubtedly  better  to  concentrate  than  to  scat- 
ter executive  responsibility.  The  recent  tend- 
ency to  give  the  mayor  the  power  of  appoint- 
ing, without  confirmation,  and  of  removing  at 
pleasure  the  heads  of  departments  is  probably 
wise,  in  the  existing  state  of  public  opinion. 
It  has  not  always  resulted  in  good  government ; 
it  may  give  us  very  bad  government  indeed,  if 
the  people  are  careless  about  the  choice  of 
mayor;  but  in  such  a  case  bad  government  is 
precisely  what  is  deserved,  and  the  worse  it  is 
the  better.  It  is  only  by  bringing  immediately 
home  to  the  people  the  consequences  of  their 
carelessness  that  they  will  cease  to  be  careless. 
When  they  wake  up,  as  they  have  in  New 
York,  and  choose  a  thoroughly  upright  and 
capable  mayor,  the  concentration  in  his  hands 
of  executive  responsibility  will  be  found  to  be 
a  great  advantage.  Does  any  sane  man  think 
that  it  would  be  better  to  have  the  power  now 
conferred  on  Mr.  Low  dispersed  among  a  num- 
ber of  boards  or  commissions,  or  shared  by  him 
with  the  municipal  council? 


220  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

5.  A  rigid  civil  Berviee  Bystem,  fairly  en- 
Eorced,  with  competitive  examinations  rationally 
adapted  to  each  department,  is  also  required. 
It  is  will  to  put  considerable  emphasis  on  the 
phrase  "fairly  enforced."  It  is  sometimes  true 
that  civil  service  laws  are  enacted  by  the  party 
which  is  about  to  vacate  the  offices,  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  its  own  members  in  office; 
and  experience  has  proved  that  such  laws  can 
be  administered  for  partisan  purposes.  On  the 
other  hand,  an'  incoming  mayor  may  assume 
that  the  men  whom  he  finds  in  office  are  all 
rascals,  and  may  manage  to  establish  the  most 
hostile  relations  between  himself  and  those 
employees  whom  the  civil  service  laws  protect 
against  his  arbitrary  removal.  A  civil  service 
law  will  not  accomplish  much  good  if  it  is  used 
to  screen  incompetent  officials,  or  if  the  execu- 
tive authorities  hate  it  and  constantly  seek  to 
break  it  down.  But  a  civil  service  law  judi- 
cially administered  by  the  commission,  and  heart- 
ily accepted  by  the  executive  officers,  will  result 
in  a  great  improvement  in  the  public  service. 

Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  legal  changes 
which  seem  to  me  to  be  desirable  in  the  organi- 
zation and  administration  of  our  municipalities. 
To  give  all  cities  the  constitutional  right  to 
frame  and  amend  their  own  charters;  to  extend 
the  municipal  franchise  to  all  persons  owning 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       221 

or  renting  real  property  in  the  city,  whether  liv- 
ing within  the  corporation  limits  or  not ;  to  abol- 
ish the  ward,  as  a  political  division,  and  elect 
councils  and  boards  of  education  on  general 
tickets;  to  centralize  the  executive  in  the  per- 
son of  the  mayor  and  to  put  the  municipal 
service  on  the  basis  of  the  merit  system,  — 
these  measures  would,  I  am  persuaded,  have 
some  tendency  to  purify  and  strengthen  muni- 
cipal governments.  Yet  I  do  not  put  forth  this 
programme  as  a  panacea.  I  am  perfectly  well 
aware  that  with  this  machinery  all  in  motion 
we  might  have  very  bad  government.  Some- 
thing more  than  the  most  improved  political 
machinery  is  necessary  to  secure  good  municipal 
government.     What  is  necessary? 

In  the  first  place  the  people  of  the  cities  must 
have  some  conception  of  what  a  well-governed 
city  would  be.  We  must  have  ideals,  and  keep 
them  steadily  before  our  eyes.  The  seer  in  the 
book  of  Revelation  saw  the  Holy  City,  the  New 
Jerusalem,  descending  out  of  heaven  from  God. 
Mr.  Drummond  tells  us  that  as  John  saw  in  his 
vision  the  New  Jerusalem,  so  we  must  see  the 
New  London,  the  New  Boston,  the  New  Chi- 
cago, the  New  New  York;  the  city  that  ought 
to  be;  the  regenerated,  purified,  redeemed  city; 
we  must  see  it,  and  believe  in  it,  and  be  ready 
to  work  and  suffer  to  brinjr  it  down  to  earth. 


222  SOCIAL   SALVATION 

Nothing  thai  is  worth  doing  is  ever  done  in  this 
world  except  under  the  inspiration  of  high 
ideals  which  take  possession  of  the  souls  of  men 
and  control  their  conduct.  What  will  that  city 
be  which  shall  occupy  the  ground  where  the  city 
now  stands  which  to  me  is  most  dear?  Let  me 
try  to  picture  it. 

It  will  be  a  well-governed  city, — a  city  in 
which  law  will  he  respected  by  the  magistrates 
and  obeyed  by  the  citizens,  whose  streets  will 
be  safe  by  night  and  by  day;  a  city  in  which 
the  industries  that  debauch  and  degrade  men 
shall  not  have  larger  opportunities  than  those 
which  minister  to  their  welfare;  a  city  in  which 
the  strong  are  not  permitted  to  aggrandize  them- 
selves, through  legal  privilege,  at  the  expense 
of  the  weak;  a  city  in  which  the  great  coopera- 
tive enterprises  are  economically  and  efficiently 
conducted  for  the  public  good  and  the  revenues 
accruing  therefrom  are  carefully  expended  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  people.  I  trust  that  it 
will  be  a  city  in  which  the  people  have  learned 
to  cooperate  in  a  great  many  ways  for  their  own 
profit,  securing  for  themselves  vast  benefits,  at 
small  cost,  through  associated  effort.  I  hope 
that  it  will  be  a  city  in  which  there  will  be  not 
only  great  parks  and  boulevards  on  the  out- 
skirts, hut  many  small  pleasure  grounds  scat- 
tered through  the  whole  area,  within  easy  reach 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       223 

of  all  the  homes.  I  hope  that  libraries,  reading- 
rooms,  great  art  galleries,  and  fine  orchestras 
will  provide  for  the  education  of  all  the  people, 
without  money  and  without  price.  I  hope  that 
the  whole  city  will  be  so  clean  and  healthy  that 
every  part  of  it  shall  be  safe  and  desirable  for 
residence ;  that  there  will  be  no  vast  preserves 
of  opulence  in  which  none  but  the  richest  could 
live,  and  no  sinks  of  squalor  and  misery  in  which 
none  but  the  poorest  would  live.  I  hope  that 
there  will  be  no  unemployed,  rich  or  poor,  in 
its  population ;  but  that  the  city  will  find  some 
way  of  making  it  certain  that  no  able-bodied 
human  being  who  is  willing  to  work  shall  either 
beg  or  starve,  and  that  every  able-bodied  human 
being  who  prefers  to  beg  shall  either  work  or 
starve. 

These  may  seem  to  be  high  hopes,  but  many 
of  them  have  been  in  good  part  realized  else- 
where; I  think  that  they  are  not  irrational; 
that  we  may  confidently  look  to  the  coming 
years  to  bring  in  the  substance  of  these  great 
gains. 

But  who  are  to  do  all  these  things  for  us? 
Who  will  quench  the  violence  of  partisanship, 
bridle  monopoly,  purge  away  corruption,  banish 
pauperism,  cleanse  the  slums,  organize  the 
cooperation,  open  the  parks,  build  the  art  gal- 
leries, equip  the  orchestras?     Who  will  trans- 


224  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

form  fche  nineteenth  century  city,  with  its  rotten 
politics  and  its  wasteful  administration  and  its 
rank  extremes  of  riotous  wraith  and  groveling 
poverty,  into  the  well-ordered,  thrifty,  peaceful 
community  which  we  have  seen  in  our  dreams? 
The  people,  I  answer;  the  people  who  live  in 
the  city;  the  men  and  women  of  the  palaces  and 
the  tenement  houses;  the  people  in  the  stores 
and  the  shops,  the  banks  and  the  factories,  — 
the  people  themselves  must  do  it.  Really, 
when  you  come  to  think  about  it,  there  is  no- 
body else  who  can  be  expected  to  do  it.  No 
legions  of  angels  are  coming  down  from  heaven 
to  regenerate  our  cities;  the  Congress  at  Wash- 
ington will  not  be  able  to  attend  to  it,  nor  will 
it  be  well  for  us  to  put  our  trust  in  the  legisla- 
ture at  Columbus  or  at  Albany  or  at  Harrisbnrg 
or  at  New  Haven,  or  in  any  boards  or  commis- 
sions which  it  can  contrive.  No  help  is  coming 
to  us  from  any  of  these  quarters.  We  are  never 
going  to  get  good  government  in  the  cities  till 
the  people  of  the  cities  give  it  to  us.  The  one 
thing  to  be  desired  is  that  the  interference  of 
the  state  government  with  municipal  affairs  shall 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  that  the  respon- 
sibility of  managing  their  own  business  shall  be 
brought  directly  home  to  the  people  of  every 
community.  The  attempt  to  take  the  power 
away  from  them,  to  invent  all  sorts  of  legislative 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE  CITY       225 

pokes  and  hopples  by  which  they  shall  be  pre- 
vented from  exercising  their  will,  must  result 
disastrously. 

The  truth  is  that  democracy,  with  universal 
suffrage,  is  our  dispensation;  we  are  in  for  it, 
and  we  must  fight  it  out  along  that  line ;  if  we 
are  to  be  saved  at  all,  we  must  be  saved  by  the 
people;  if  we  are  to  be  reformed,  the  reform 
must  spring  from  the  intelligent  choice  of  the 
people ;  it  must  express  their  wishes ;  the  notion 
that  by  some  sort  of  hocus-pocus  we  can  get  so- 
ciety reformed  without  letting  the  people  know 
it  does  undoubtedly  haunt  the  brains  of  some 
astute  political  promoters,  but  it  will  not  work. 
No;  there  is  no  power  in  a  democracy  but  the 
power  of  the  people,  and  it  is  the  people  who 
are  going  to  give  us  the  regenerated  city  of  the 
twentieth  century,  if  we  ever  get  it.  Nor  will 
it  be  done  by  the  people  of  the  churches  and 
the  colleges  and  the  literary  clubs  and  the  art 
associations.  It  will  not  be  done  without  them, 
but  they  alone  can  never  accomplish  it.  A 
democracy  in  name  which  is  an  oligarchy  in 
fact  has  no  power  for  such  tasks  as  these.  The 
people  of  New  York  have  begun  to  realize  that 
there  will  never  be  good  government  in  New 
York  until  the  people  of  the  East  Side  are  just 
as  earnest  in  their  choice  of  it  and  just  as  clear 
in  their  understanding  of  what  it  means  as  the 


22G  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

people  of  Murray  Hill;  the  people  of  Chicago 
have  got  i"  learn  —  some  of  them  know  — that 
there  will  never  be  good  government  in  thai  city 
until  the  people  of  Halstead  Street  have  sub- 
stantially the  same  mind  about  it  as  the  people 
of  the  Drexel  Boulevard. 

Let  us  not  underrate  our  problem.  These 
people  of  the  cities  —  many  of  them  ignorant, 
depraved,  superstitious,  unsocial  in  their  tem- 
pers and  habits;  many  of  them  ignorant  of  the 
lano-uao-e  in  which  our  laws  are  written,  and  un- 
able  freely  to  communicate  with  those  who  wish 
to  influence  them  for  good ;  having  no  concep- 
tion of  government  but  that  of  an  enemy  to  be 
eluded  or  an  unkind  providence  from  which  dole 
may  be  extorted ;  and  no  idea  of  a  vote  higher 
than  that  of  a  commodity  which  can  be  sold  for 
money,  — these  are  the  "powers  that  be"  who 
must  give  us  good  government  in  our  cities,  if 
we  are  ever  to  get  it.  We  need  not  imagine 
that  we  are  somehow  going  to  organize  a  power 
which  will  fence  these  people  in  and  hold  them 
down  and  keep  them  harmless,  — that  we  shall 
get  good  government  by  suppressing  them ;  that 
policy  will  never  work.  There  are  too  many  of 
them  to  manage  in  this  way;  and  so  long  as  we 
suffer  vast  multitudes  to  remain  in  this  condi- 
tion, so  long  we  shall  have  corrupt  and  costly 
government.    The  doom  of  a  democracy  is  to  be 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       227 

as  bad  as  its  worst  classes;  if  we  want  to  lift 
up  the  government  of  the  cities,  we  must  lift  up 
the  whole  people. 

There  is  a  picture  in  the  sixtieth  chapter  of 
Isaiah  of  a  regenerated  and  glorified  city;  a 
city  whose  officers  are  peace  and  whose  exactors 
righteousness;  whose  walls  are  salvation  and 
whose  gates  are  praise;  a  city  which  has  risen 
from  misery  and  shame  to  splendor  and  honor. 
"Whereas,"  says  the  Mighty  One  of  Jacob, 
"thou  hast  been  forsaken  and  hated,  so  that  no 
man  passed  through  thee,  I  will  make  thee  an 
eternal  excellency,  a  joy  of  many  generations." 
And  the  explanation  of  how  it  is  to  come  to 
pass  is  given  in  a  single  sentence:  "Thy  people 
also  shall  be  all  righteous."  That  is  the  only 
way  in  which  cities  ever  were  redeemed  or  re- 
generated. 

Most  true  it  is  that  many  things  might  be 
done  by  the  people  of  the  more  intelligent  and 
fortunate  classes  by  which  the  emancipation 
and  elevation  of  the  ignorant  and  degraded 
classes  could  be  greatly  hastened.  A  consid- 
erable part  of  their  degradation  is  due  to  the 
burdens  which  the  prosperous  and  the  strong 
wantonly  or  thoughtlessly  impose  on  them.  The 
tribute  which  these  poor  people  pay  for  the  en- 
richment of  those  who  hold  valuable  franchises 
is  very  large.     Because  it  is  extorted  in  cents 


228  SOCIAL  SALVATION 

or  fractions  of  rents  it  escapes  notice;  but  flu- 
sum  of  such  extortion,  added  together  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  would  make  the  difference,  in 
many  a  workingman's  life,  between  squalor  and 

decency, — perhaps  between  life  and  death. 
The  gigantic  inequalities  of  taxation,  of  which 

President  Harrison  spoke  so  sternly  not  long 
before  his  death,  all  work  against  the  poorest. 
Such  wrongs  the  rich  and  the  strong  can  rem- 
edy, if  they  will,  at  once,  without  asking  leave 
of  those  who  suffer  them.  If  such  wrongs  were 
remedied,  the  task  of  reaching  these  multitudes 
with  light  and  help  would  be  far  less  formid- 
able. Yet  it  would  still  remain  true  that  for 
the  great  and  beneficent  ends  which  are  involved 
in  good  city  government  these  multitudes  must 
be  enlisted;  they  must  be  civilized,  educated, 
inspired  with  new  ideas ;  new  hopes  must  be  kin- 
dled in  their  hearts ;  new  paths  must  be  opened 
to  their  thoughts ;  new  wants  must  be  awakened 
in  them ;  a  wholly  new  conception  of  what  life 
means  must  be  somehow  imparted  to  them. 

The  city  of  the  future  which  we  saw  in  our 
dream  is  simply  a  great  community  cooperating 
for  the  public  good,  and  in  order  that  the  coop- 
eration may  be  effective,  the  people  must  know 
#nrhat  is  good  and  how  to  cooperate.  And  this 
involves  a  mighty  change  in  the  characters  of 
multitudes  of  them ! 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF   THE   CITY       229 

Well,  there  is  no  other  way  to  get  the  good 
things  that  we  have  set  our  hearts  upon.     We 
must  teach  these  people  what  life  means,  and 
what  love  means ;  we  must  bring  some  regener- 
ating influence  to  work  upon  their  characters, 
by  which  they  shall  be  transformed  in  the  spirit 
of  their  mind,  and  filled  with   the   sentiments 
and  impulses   out  of  which  social  cooperation 
naturally  springs.    In  short,  they  must  be  Chris- 
tianized.    That    is    what    must    somehow    be 
achieved,  if  our  dream  is  to  be  realized.     For 
the  constructive  idea  of  that  cooperative  muni- 
cipality of  which  we  are  thinking  is  the  Chris- 
tian idea,   simply  that  and  nothing  more;  the 
idea  that  we  are  children  of  a  common  Father 
and  therefore  brothers,   in  deed  and  in  truth; 
the  idea  that  we  are  members  one  of  another; 
that  each  must  live  for  all  and  all  for  each. 
Somehow  we  must  manage  to  get  this  idea  into 
the  minds  of  all  these  people,  if  we  want  them 
to  help  us  in  building  on  the  earth  the  kind  of 
city  that  we  have  been  thinking  about.     And, 
doubtless,   nobody  can    succeed,    very   well,   in 
getting  it  into  other  people's  heads,  unless  he 
has  first  got  it  in  his  own. 

This,  then,  is  the  thing  that  I  am  hoping  for 
—  that  our  communities  are  really  going  to  be 
Christianized;  that  a  great  many  people  are 
coming  to  see  that  the  Christian  law  is  meant 


230  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

to  live  by,  to  do  business  by,  to  rule  poll 
to  organize  municipalities  upon,  and  that  they 

are  going  to  make  the  world  believe  it.  Such 
a  faith  as  that  would  have  tremendous  power 
over  the  people  in  the  shuns  and  the  tenement 
houses,  to  lift  them  up  and  make  men  of  them. 
Before  such  a  faith  as  that,  transforming  so- 
ciety, rotten  politics  and  grinding  monopolies 
would  shrivel  and  disappear;  under  its  banner 
light  and  beauty,  peace  and  plenty,  joy  and 
gladness  would  be  led  in. 

It  is  a  glorious  hope.  Have  we  any  reasons 
for  it?     We  have  good  and  strong  reasons. 

In  the  first  place,  my  own  confidence  goes 
down  to  the  bedrock  of  all  my  beliefs  that  what 
ought  to  be  is  going  to  be.  If  I  believe  in  God 
at  all,  I  must  believe  that.  Because  I  am  sure 
that  the  kind  of  city  we  have  been  thinking 
about  is  the  kind  that  ought  to  exist  upon  this 
continent,  I  am  confident  that  it  will  exist. 

In  the  second  place,  I  can  see  signs  that  it  is 
coming.  The  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury witnessed  a  great  awakening  of  thought 
and  conscience  upon  this  subject,  and  the  whole 
trend  of  opinion  is  toward  the  idea  that  the 
future  city  must  be  a  cooperative  community. 
This  means  that  it  must  be  a  Christian  commu- 
nity; that  the  people  must  learn  the  Christian 
law,  and  live  by  it  in  all  their  municipal  admin- 
istration. 


THE  REDEMPTION   OF  THE   CITY       231 

But  the  first  thing,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not 
the  machinery,  but  the  motive  power;  not  the 
forms  of  a  cooperative  commonwealth,  but  the 
spirit  of  cooperation,  the  spirit  of  social  service. 
It  will  come  when  there  are  enough  men  and 
women  who  are  able  to  put  the  common  welfare 
above  personal  gain  or  pleasure,  and  to  work 
for  the  common  good  with  the  same  self-effacing 
devotion  as  that  which  sends  soldiers  into  the 
ranks  in  war-time,  missionaries  to  the  African 
jungles.  There  is  no  call  to  heroic,  consecrated 
service  clearer  or  more  imperative  than  that 
which  summons  faithful  men  and  women  to  give 
their  lives  to  the  service  of  the  cities  in  which 
they  live.  The  Master  whom  we  serve  has  need 
of  loyal  representatives  and  followers  in  many 
fields;  he  needs  them  on  the  bloodstained  soil 
of  the  Flowery  Kingdom;  he  needs  them  in  the 
famine-stricken  lands  of  India;  he  needs  them 
in  the  frontier  settlements  of  the  West,  and  in 
the  cotton-fields  and  the  highland  fastnesses  of 
the  South,  but  there  is  no  place  where  he  needs 
them  more,  no  place  where  the  opportunity  of 
a  self-denying  devotion  is  greater,  than  in  the 
cities  of  this  land,  —  in  taking  up  the  burdens 
of  civic  responsibility,  in  witnessing  and  work- 
ins:  and  suffering  to  redeem  the  cities  from  the 
thralldom  of  greed  and  vice  and  corruption. 

It  is  the  men  and  women  who  sit  every  Sun- 


232  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

day  morning  in  the  pews  of  our  city  churches 

to  whom  this  call  comes  first  and  loudest.  They, 
more  than  any  others,  are  responsible  for  the 
redemption  of  the  cities.  The  cities  are  in  the 
melancholy  condition  in  which  we  now  find  them 
because  they  have  worn  too  loosely  the  bonds  of 
civic  obligation.  They  have  been  too  willing  to 
take  from  the  commonwealth  the  protection,  the 
privilege,  the  bounty  which  it  dispenses,  and  to 
render  little  or  no  return  in  faithful  service. 
When  the  city  has  summoned  them  to  labor  and 
sacrifice  they  have  answered,  "  I  pray  thee,  have 
me  excused."  They  have  even  marveled,  some- 
times, at  the  unreasonableness  of  those  who  sug- 
gested that  a  man  might  be  required  to  neglect 
his  business,  or  to  forego  some  portion  of  his 
gains,  in  order  that  he  might  serve  the  city. 
That  has  seemed  to  them  an  exorbitant  demand. 
All  such  estimates  of  life  must  be  revised.  We 
shall  never  have  good  government  in  our  cities 
till  the  people  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  get  some  idea  of  what  Christian  con- 
secration means,  and  understand  more  perfectly 
what  is  the  high  calling  of  God  to  the  American 
citizen. 

A  great  part  of  the  inspiring  work  committed 
to  your  hands,  my  brethren,  is  to  awaken  and 
Eoster  the  sentiment  of  community,  the  spirit  of 
fraternity,  the  feeling  that  business  of  citizen- 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF   THE  CITY       233 

ship  is  a  high  and  sacred  function.  There  may- 
be some  who  would  doubt  the  wisdom  of  social- 
izing, to  any  greater  extent,  the  mechanism  of 
the  state,  but  there  can  be  none  who  will  ques- 
tion the  immense  importance  of  socializing  the 
individual,  —  of  teaching  every  man  in  society 
to  think  and  speak  and  act  with  the  welfare  of 
the  community  continually  in  view.  The  best 
part  of  this  work  will  be  done  in  unofficial  and 
homely  ways;  by  such  agencies  as  the  college 
settlements  and  the  neighborhood  guilds  which 
have  borne  such  abundant  fruit  in  the  late  over- 
turning in  New  York  city;  above  all  by  such 
churches  as  have  comprehended  their  mission 
and  are  devoting  themselves  to  Christianizing 
the  society  in  which  they  live.  For  that  king- 
dom of  heaven  whose  foundation  principles  are, 
"No  man  liveth  unto  himself,"  "Ye  are  mem- 
bers one  of  another,"  must  in  some  good  degree 
prevail  before  our  cities  will  be  delivered  from 
that  bondage  of  corruption  under  which  they 
now  groan  and  travail  together.  But  every 
word  of  clear  testimony,  every  act  of  good-will, 
every  unselfish  effort  to  promote  the  common 
weal,  helps  to  bring  a  little  nearer  the  day  of 
that  deliverance. 

If,  while  you  are  striving  after  this,  some 
one  should  admonish  you  that  your  business  is 
the  saving  of  souls,  it  might  be  well  to  raise 


234  SOCIAL    SALVATION 

tlw  question  how  and  where  it  is  in  this  genera- 
tion that  souls  are  lost.  How  many  of  the 
youth  are  Beduced  from  the  ways  of  virtue  l>y 
snares  spread  in  their  path  through  the  conni- 
vance <>f  weak  and  corrupt  municipal  govern- 
ments? How  many  eitizens  find  their  standards 
of  honesty  and  honor  constantly  lowered  through 
the  financial  rascality  which  bad  city  govern- 
ment makes  epidemic?  Is  there  any  associa- 
tion in  which  a  man  loses  manhood  more  rapidly 
than  in  the  pestilent  politics  of  a  rotten  munici- 
pality? And  how  about  these  good  people  in 
the  pews?  Are  they  running  no  risks  of  losing 
their  souls?  Is  the  man  in  no  peril  who  delib- 
erately spurns  the  sacred  obligations  of  citizen- 
ship because  he  is  unwilling  to  disturb  his  lei- 
sure or  lessen  his  gains?  Are  there  any  who 
are  exposed  to  deadlier  danger  than  those  sleek 
and  comfortable  citizens  who  have  handed  over 
the  business  of  governing  the  cities  to  the  ward 
bosses  and  the  promoters  of  monopoly,  and  who 
now  content  themselves  with  making  money 
and  having  a  good  time,  while  the  city  goes  at 
a  plunging  pace  to  pandemonium  ?  Let  us  not 
neglect  the  business  of  saving  souls ;  but  let  us 
try  to  get  clear  ideas  of  how  it  is  that  souls  are 
lost  and  of  what  salvation  means. 

Is   there  power  in   the   gospel  we  preach  to 
quicken  men's  consciences  with  respect  to  these 


THE   REDEMPTION   OF   THE   CITY       235 

highest  and  most  stringent  obligations :  to  con- 
vict them  of  sin  when  such  duties  are  evaded 
or  denied,  and  to  lead  them  into  a  genuine 
repentance?  That  is  a  question  which  ought  to 
be  considered  very  seriously  by  every  Christian 
minister.  Reflection  upon  it  may  lead  to  the 
conviction  that  the  saving  of  souls  is  a  business 
larger  and  more  urgent  than  many  of  those  who 
use  the  phrase  are  apt  to  think. 

It  is  a  high  calling,  my  brethren;  I  give  you 
joy  that  you  have  chosen  it.  There  has  never 
been  a  day,  since  the  Apostolic  Band  received 
their  first  commission,  when  the  work  meant  so 
much  as  it  means  to-day;  when  its  field  was  so 
wide,  its  opportunities  so  fair,  its  promise  so 
inspiring.  May  God  help  you  to  understand 
all  that  it  means,  and  to  do  it,  while  your  day 
lasts,  with  all  your  might ! 


REFERENCES  AND  SUGGESTIONS 

FOR    CHAPTER    I 

Sociology,  by  John  Bascom. 

Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  by  Francis  G.  Pea- 
body. 

Outlines  of  Social  Theology,  and  God's  Education  of  Man, 
by  William  De  Witt  Hyde. 

Social  Morality,  by  Frederic  D.  Maurice. 

Christianity  and  Social  Problems,  by  Lyman  Abbott. 

Unto  this  Last,  and  The  Crown  of  Wild  Olive,  by  John 
Ruskin. 

Social  Aspects  of  Christianity,  by  Richard  T.  Ely. 

Faith  and  Social  Service,  by  George  Hodges. 

Social  Reform  and  the  Church,  by  John  R.  Commons. 

Moral  Evolution,  by  George  Harris. 

The  Divine  Drama,  by  Granville  D.  Pike. 

FOR   CHAPTER   II 

Labor  and  Life  of  the  People,  by  Charles  Booth. 
Christian  and  Civic  Economy  of  Large  Towns,  by  Thomas 

Chalmers. 
Practical  Socialism,  by  S.  A.  Barnett. 
Hull  House  Papers  and  Maps. 
American  Charities,  by  A.  G.  Warner. 
How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  and  A    Ten  Years'  War,  by 

Jacob  A.  Riis. 
Dependents,  Defectives,   and  Delinquents,    by   Charles   R. 

Henderson. 


238       REFERENCES   AND  SUGGESTIONS 

The  Christum  Pastor,  by  Washington  Gladden,  pp.  148- 
475. 

Reports  of  International  Congress  of  Charities  and  Correc- 
tion, 1893. 

FOR   CHAPTEB    III 

The  Unemployed,  by  C.  Drage. 

Problems  of  Poverty,  by  J.  Hobson. 

Massachusetts,  Report  on  the  Unemployed  (1895),  by  Davis 
K.  Dewey. 

The  Workers,  vols.  i.  and  ii.,  by  Walter  A.  Wyckoff. 

Tramping  with  Tramps,  by  Josiah  Flynt. 

Report  on  "Labor  Colonies  (in  Germany),  by  J.  Mavor. 

The  City  Wilderness,  edited  by  Robert  A.  Woods. 

The  Public  Treatment  of  Pauperism,  edited  by  John  II. 
Finley. 

Report  of  Citizens'  Relief  Committee  of  Boston,  for  1893- 
94. 

The  Future  Problem  of  Charity  and  the  Unemployed ,  by 
John  Graham  Brooks,  Annals  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy, vol.  v.  p.  1. 

FOR   CHAPTER    IV 

Punishment  and  Reformation,  by  F.  II.  Wines. 

Prisons  and  Child  Saving  Institutions,  by  F.  C.  Wines. 

Prisoners  and  Paupers,  by  H.  M.  Boies. 

Heredity  and  Christian  Problems,  by  A.  H.  Bradford. 

History  of  the  Criminal  Law  of  England,  by  Sir  James 
Stephen. 

Crime  and  its  Causes,  by  William  Douglas  Morrison. 

Dependents,  Defectives,  and  Delinquents,  by  Charles  R. 
Henderson. 

Reports  of  International  Congress  of  Charities  and  Correc- 
tion, 1893. 


REFERENCES  AND   SUGGESTIONS       230 

FOR    CHAPTER    V 

Prohibition,  Regulation,  and  Licensing  of  Vice,  by  Sheldon 

Amos. 
Prostitution  Considered,  by  W.  Acton. 
Fifth  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor. 
A  State  Iniquity,  by  Benjamin  Scott. 
The  Study  of  Sociology,  by  Herbert  Spencer,  p.  306. 
Wealth  and  Moral  Law,  by  E.  B.  Andrews. 
Applied  Christianity,  by  Washington  Gladden,  pp.  107- 

200. 
Elements  of  Ethics,  by  Noah  K.  Davis,  p.  73. 
Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  by  J.  Koren. 
The  Liquor  Problem  in  its  Legislative  Aspects,  by  F.  H. 

Wines  and  J.  Koren. 
Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,  by  Raymond  H.  Calkins. 
Methods  of  Social  Reform,  by  W.  S.  Jevons,  pp.  236-276. 
The  Workers,  by  W.  A.  Wyckoff. 
The  Temperance  Problem,  Past  and  Future,  by  E.  R.  L. 

Gould,  Forum,  November,  1804. 
Popular  Control  of  the  Liquor  Traffic,  by  E.  R.  L.  Gould. 

FOR   CHAPTER    VI 

Democracy  and  Empire,  by  F.  H.  Giddings. 

Relation  of  State  to  Education  in  England  and  America ; 

Annals  of  American  Academy,  vol.  iii.  pp.  660-600. 
American  Contributions  to  Civilization,  by  Charles  W.  Eliot, 

pp.  203-233. 
The  School  and  Society,  by  John  Dewey. 
Social  Theory,  by  John  Bascom,  pp.  351-363. 
Education  in  its  Relation  to  Manual  Industry,  by  Arthur 

MacArthur. 


240       REFERENCES  AND  SUGGESTIONS 

1  OB   CHAPTEB   VII 

Municipal   Government  >><   Great  Britain,  and  Municipal 

Government  in  Continental  Europe,  by  Alberl  Shaw. 
is  of  Conferences  of  the  National  Municipal  League 

for  Good  City  Government,  1894-1900. 
Municipal  Reform  Movements  in  the  United  Slates,  by  A. 

H.  Tolman. 
The  City  and  the  People,  by  Frank  Parsons. 
Municipal  Monopolies,  edited  by  E.  W.  Bemis. 
The  Cosmopolis  City  Club,  by  Washington  Gladden. 
Social  Facts  and  Forces,   by  Washington   Gladden,  pp. 

155-191. 


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